Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik
HL 34: Poster I: III-V Semiconductors
HL 34.13: Poster
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 18:30–20:30, Poster D2
Anisotropic g-factors and isotropic spin lifetimes in reduced symmetry (100) GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells — •Peter S. Eldridge1, J. Hübner1, S. Oertel1, M. Henini2, R. T. Harley3, and M. Oestreich1 — 1Institute for Solid State Physics, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover, Appelstr. 2, 30167 Hannover, Germany — 2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, NG7 4RD — 3School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, SO17 1BJ
Zincblende semiconductor quantum wells grown on (100) substrates possessing low symmetry (C2v) provide an interesting medium for the study of electron spin dynamics as the in-plane lifetime and g-factor can be anisotropic. The origin of the expected lifetime anisotropy is interference of bulk (BIA) and structural (SIA) inversion anisotropy terms in the conduction band spin-orbit splitting while that of the g-factor is the effective conduction band electric field. Interpretation of cw Hanle measurements is difficult as the depolarisation half width depends on both g-factor and spin lifetime simultaneously. In this work we investigate separately the in-plane electron spin lifetime and the g-factor in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells with alloy asymmetry using time-resolved spin quantum-beat spectroscopy. The measurements show easily detectable in-plane anisotropy of the electron g-factor but no anisotropy of the spin lifetime. The results therefore demonstrate that the electron g-factor can be readily engineered through the effective conduction band electric field but that the SIA splitting in such systems is unmeasurably small.