Luminescence polarization and hole spin-relaxation in quantum wells

✍ Scribed by J. Barrau; G. Bacquet; F. Hassen; N. Lauret; T. Amand; M. Brousseau

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 334 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-6036
• DOI: 10.1006/spmi.1993.1099

✦ Synopsis

We report the polarization spectra obtained from strained (I n_{x} G a_{1-x}) As/GaAs quantum wells. They reflect two important microscopic properties : first, the spin relaxation of the photo-excited holes is incomplete during recombination; second, the spin relaxation of the photo-generated carriers is not affected by the initial electron-hole correlations. We undertake a discussion concerning the relative probabilities of the different hole relaxation processes which leads us to suggest that the prime cause of spin depolarization of photo-generated holes out of (\vec{k}=0), is the intra-band hole/acoustic phonon scattering, via piezo-electric coupling.