Excitation of spin density and current by coherent light pulses in QWs
A. V. Poshakinskiy, S. A. Tarasenko
Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the RAS, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia
Abstract
We study the orbital and spin dynamics of charge carriers induced by
non-overlapping linearly polarized light pulses in semiconductor quantum wells
(QWs). It is shown that such an optical excitation with coherent pulses leads
to a spin orientation of photocarriers and an electric current. The effects
are caused by the interference of optical transitions driven by individual
pulses. The distribution of carriers in the spin and momentum spaces depends
on the QW crystallographic orientation and can be efficiently controlled by
the pulse polarizations, time delay and phase shift between the pulses, as
well as an external magnetic field.