Spin-galvanic effect

被引:455
作者
Ganichev, SD [1 ]
Ivchenko, EL
Bel'kov, VV
Tarasenko, SA
Sollinger, M
Weiss, D
Wegscheider, W
Prettl, W
机构
[1] Univ Regensburg, Fak Phys, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany
[2] RAS, AF Ioffe Physicotech Inst, St Petersburg 194021, Russia
[3] Tech Univ Munich, Walter Schottky Inst, D-85748 Garching, Germany
关键词
D O I
10.1038/417153a
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
There is much recent interest in exploiting the spin of conduction electrons in semiconductor heterostructures together with their charge to realize new device concepts(1). Electrical currents are usually generated by electric or magnetic fields, or by gradients of, for example, carrier concentration or temperature. The electron spin in a spin-polarized electron gas can, in principle, also drive an electrical current, even at room temperature, if some general symmetry requirements are met. Here we demonstrate such a 'spin-galvanic' effect in semiconductor heterostructures, induced by a non-equilibrium, but uniform population of electron spins. The microscopic origin for this effect is that the two electronic sub-bands for spin-up and spin-down electrons are shifted in momentum space and, although the electron distribution in each sub-band is symmetric, there is an inherent asymmetry in the spin-flip scattering events between the two sub-bands. The resulting current flow has been detected by applying a magnetic field to rotate an optically oriented non-equilibrium spin polarization in the direction of the sample plane. In contrast to previous experiments, where spin-polarized currents were driven by electric fields in semiconductor(2,3),we have here the complementary situation where electron spins drive a current without the need of an external electric field.
引用
收藏
页码:153 / 156
页数:5
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