Abstract
The importance of spin-transport phenomena in condensed-matter physics has increased over the past decade with the advent of metallic giant-magnetoresistive systems and spin-valve transistors1. An extension of such phenomena to semiconductors should create possibilities for seamless integration of ‘spin electronics’ with existing solid-state devices, and may someday enable quantum computing schemes using electronic spins as non-local mediators of coherent nuclear spin interactions2. But to realize such goals, spin transport must be effected without destroying the relevant spin information. Here we report time-resolved optical studies of non-local Faraday rotation in n-type bulk gallium arsenide, which show macroscopic lateral transport of coherently precessing electronic spins over distances exceeding 100 micrometres. The ability to drag these spin packets by their negative charge, without a substantial increase in spin decoherence, is a consequence of the rather weak entanglement of spin coherence with orbital motion in this system3.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Prinz, G. Spin-polarized transport. Phys. Today 48, 58–63 (1995).
Kane, B. E. Asilicon based nuclear spin quantum computer. Nature 393, 133–137 (1998).
Kikkawa, J. M. & Awschalom, D. D. Resonant spin amplification in GaAs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4313–4316 (1998).
Kikkawa, J. M., Smorchkova, I. P., Samarth, N. & Awschalom, D. D. Room-temperature spin memory in two-dimensional electron gases. Science 277, 1284–1287 (1997).
Worsley, R. E., Traynor, N. J., Grevatt, T. & Harley, R. T. Transient linear birefringence in GaAs quantum wells. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3224–3227 (1996).
Oestreich, M. et al. Temperature and density dependence of the electron Landé g-factor in semiconductors. Phys. Rev. B 53, 7911–7916 (1996).
Niedernostheide, F.-J., Hirschinger, J., Prettl, W., Novak, V. & Kostial, H. Oscillations of current filaments in n-GaAs caused by a magnetic field. Phys. Rev. B 58, 4454–4458 (1998).
Kalevich, V. K. & Korenov, V. L. Effect of electric field on the optical orientation of 2D electrons. Pis'ma Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 52, 230–235 (1990) [JETP Lett. 52, 230–235 (1990)].
Acknowledgements
We thank S. J. Allen for discussions and acknowledge support from the ARO and NSF QUEST STC.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kikkawa, J., Awschalom, D. Lateral drag of spin coherence in gallium arsenide. Nature 397, 139–141 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/16420
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/16420
This article is cited by
-
Flying electron spin control gates
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Magnetization in CNT induced by nitrogen doping and enhanced by transversal electric field application
Journal of Materials Science (2022)
-
Differential conductance and spin current in hybrid quantum dot-topological superconducting nanowire
Quantum Information Processing (2021)
-
Gate controllable spin transistor with semiconducting tunneling barrier
Nano Research (2020)
-
Modeling of the Spin Currents in Resonant Tunneling Diodes Based on Ferromagnetic Semiconductor Spacers
Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism (2019)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.