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Title: Emergence of the persistent spin helix in semiconductor quantum wells

Journal Article · · Nature (London)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07871· OSTI ID:1443050
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Santa Clara Univ., Santa Clara, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  5. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  6. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

According to Noether’s theorem, for every symmetry in nature there is a corresponding conservation law. For example, invariance with respect to spatial translation corresponds to conservation of momentum. In another well-known example, invariance with respect to rotation of the electron’s spin, or SU(2) symmetry, leads to conservation of spin polarization. For electrons in a solid, this symmetry is ordinarily broken by spin–orbit coupling, allowing spin angular momentum to flow to orbital angular momentum. Yet, it has recently been predicted that SU(2) can be achieved in a two-dimensional electron gas, despite the presence of spin–orbit coupling. The corresponding conserved quantities include the amplitude and phase of a helical spin density wave termed the ‘persistent spin helix’. SU(2) is realized, in principle, when the strengths of two dominant spin–orbit interactions, the Rashba (strength parameterized by α) and linear Dresselhaus (β1) interactions, are equal. This symmetry is predicted to be robust against all forms of spin-independent scattering, including electron–electron interactions, but is broken by the cubic Dresselhaus term (β3) and spin-dependent scattering. When these terms are negligible, the distance over which spin information can propagate is predicted to diverge as α approaches β1. Here we introduce experimental observation of the emergence of the persistent spin helix in GaAs quantum wells by independently tuning α and β1. Using transient spin-grating spectroscopy, we find a spin-lifetime enhancement of two orders of magnitude near the symmetry point. Excellent quantitative agreement with theory across a wide range of sample parameters allows us to obtain an absolute measure of all relevant spin–orbit terms, identifying β3 as the main SU(2)-violating term in our samples. The tunable suppression of spin relaxation demonstrated in this work is well suited for application to spintronics.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1443050
Report Number(s):
SLAC-PUB-13988
Journal Information:
Nature (London), Vol. 458, Issue 7238; ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 417 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Spin–orbit coupling in quantum gases journal February 2013
Drift transport of helical spin coherence with tailored spin–orbit interactions journal March 2016
Magnetic phases of spin-1 spin–orbit-coupled Bose gases journal March 2016
Enhanced spin–orbit coupling in core/shell nanowires journal August 2016
Gate control of the electron spin-diffusion length in semiconductor quantum wells journal September 2013
New perspectives for Rashba spin–orbit coupling journal August 2015
Direct determination of spin–orbit interaction coefficients and realization of the persistent spin helix symmetry journal July 2014
Direct mapping of the formation of a persistent spin helix journal August 2012
Electrical tuning of valley magnetic moment through symmetry control in bilayer MoS2 journal January 2013
Persistent spin texture enforced by symmetry journal July 2018
Rashba-like spin splitting along three momentum directions in trigonal layered PtBi2 journal October 2019
Spin-helix Larmor mode journal February 2018
Spin accumulation in photo-induced potential dimples generated in semiconductors journal January 2020
Prediction of extremely long mobile electron spin lifetimes at room temperature in wurtzite semiconductor quantum wells journal February 2011
A strong anisotropy of spin dephasing time of quasi-one dimensional electron gas in modulation-doped GaAs/AlGaAs wires journal May 2013
All-optical evaluation of spin-orbit interaction based on diffusive spin motion in a two-dimensional electron gas journal October 2015
Gate-controlled switching between persistent and inverse persistent spin helix states journal March 2016
Characterization of spin-orbit fields in InGaAs quantum wells journal October 2016
Deterministic transfer of spin polarization in wire-like lateral structures via the persistent spin helix journal October 2016
Optoelectronic devices, plasmonics, and photonics with topological insulators journal March 2017
Towards massively parallelized all-optical magnetic recording journal June 2018
Effect of illumination on the interplay between Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings in InAs quantum wells journal August 2019
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Physics and application of persistent spin helix state in semiconductor heterostructures journal June 2017
Dynamical formation and active control of persistent spin helices in III-V and II-VI quantum wells journal August 2019
Spin-helix states in the XXZ spin chain with strong boundary dissipation journal September 2017
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Intrinsic persistent spin helix state in two-dimensional group-IV monochalcogenide M X monolayers ( M = Sn or Ge and X = S , Se, or Te) journal September 2019
Disentangling orbital and spin textures of surface-derived states in non-symmorphic semimetal HfSiS journal November 2019
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Suppressed spin dephasing for two-dimensional and bulk electrons in GaAs wires due to engineered cancellation of spin-orbit interaction terms journal April 2010
Nonlinear spin Hall effect in GaAs (110) quantum wells journal August 2011
Semiclassical approach for spin dephasing in a quasi-one-dimensional channel journal January 2012
Effective spin-orbit interaction Hamiltonian for quasi-one-dimensional quantum rings journal April 2012
Hole spin relaxation in p -type (111) GaAs quantum wells journal June 2012
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Dependence of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction on the quantum well width journal November 2012
Dynamics of a localized spin excitation close to the spin-helix regime journal January 2014
Inelastic light-scattering from spin-density excitations in the regime of the persistent spin helix in a GaAs-AlGaAs quantum well journal February 2014
Absence of thermospin current response of a spin-orbit-coupled two-dimensional electron gas journal April 2014
Renormalization of anticrossings in interacting quantum wires with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings journal May 2014
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Theoretical aspects of the Edelstein effect for anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas and topological insulators journal May 2016
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Spin interferometry in anisotropic spin-orbit fields journal March 2018
Spin-orbit coupling effects in zinc-blende InSb and wurtzite InAs nanowires: Realistic calculations with multiband k · p method journal June 2018
Robustness of a persistent spin helix against a cubic Dresselhaus field in (001) and (110) oriented two-dimensional electron gases journal October 2018
Zitterbewegung and bulk-edge Landau-Zener tunneling in topological insulators journal October 2018
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Solution of the Lindblad equation for spin helix states journal April 2017
Enhancement of Spin Lifetime in Gate-Fitted InGaAs Narrow Wires journal June 2009
Spin and Charge Transport on the Surface of a Topological Insulator journal August 2010
Absence of Spontaneous Magnetic Order of Lattice Spins Coupled to Itinerant Interacting Electrons in One and Two Dimensions journal September 2011
Spin Currents in a Coherent Exciton Gas journal June 2013
Cubic Rashba Spin-Orbit Interaction of a Two-Dimensional Hole Gas in a Strained- Ge / SiGe Quantum Well journal August 2014
Long-Range Spin-Triplet Helix in Proximity Induced Superconductivity in Spin-Orbit-Coupled Systems journal November 2014
Anderson Transition of Cold Atoms with Synthetic Spin-Orbit Coupling in Two-Dimensional Speckle Potentials journal March 2017
Anisotropy and Suppression of Spin-Orbit Interaction in a GaAs Double Quantum Dot journal October 2017
Drift-Induced Enhancement of Cubic Dresselhaus Spin-Orbit Interaction in a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas journal October 2017
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Emergence of the giant out-of-plane Rashba effect and tunable nanoscale persistent spin helix in ferroelectric SnTe thin films journal January 2020
Chirality and intrinsic dissipation of spin modes in two-dimensional electron liquids journal March 2019
Spintronics without magnetism journal June 2009
Low-density molecular gas of tightly bound Rashba-Dresselhaus fermions journal February 2012
Symmetry breaking of the persistent spin helix in quantum transport journal January 2020
Dynamic spin-Hall effect and driven spin helix for linear spin-orbit interactions journal December 2009
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Enhanced circular photogalvanic effect in HgTe quantum wells in the heavily inverted regime journal January 2017
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Doping-induced persistent spin helix with a large spin splitting in monolayer SnSe journal February 2019
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Low-density molecular gas of tightly-bound Rashba-Dresselhaus fermions text January 2011
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