There currently is a large effort to explore spin-orbit effects in semiconductor structures with the ultimate goal of manipulating electron spins with gates. A search for materials with large spin-orbit coupling is therefore important. We report results of a study of spin-orbit effects in a strained InGaAs/InP quantum well. The spin-orbit relaxation time, determined from the weak antilocalization effect, was found to depend non-monotonically on gate voltage. The spin orbit scattering rate had a maximum value of 5×1010s−1 at an electron density of n=3×1015m−2. The scattering rate decreased from this for both increasing and decreasing densities. The smallest measured value was approximately 109s−1 at an electron concentration of n=6×1015m−2. This behavior could not be explained by either the Rashba nor the bulk Dresselhaus mechanisms but is attributed to asymmetry or strain effects at dissimilar quantum well interfaces.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0303401,
title = {Anomalous spin-orbit effects in a strained InGaAs/InP quantum well structure},
author = {S. A. Studenikin and P. T. Coleridge and P. Poole and A. Sachrajda},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0303401},
year = {2009}
}