Electron spin relaxation in n-type InAs quantum wires

TL;DR

This paper studies how electron spin relaxation in n-type InAs quantum wires is affected by wire size and growth direction, revealing unique characteristics due to inter-subband scattering and spin-orbit coupling.

Contribution

It provides a microscopic numerical analysis of spin relaxation in quantum wires, highlighting the influence of structural parameters and inter-subband interactions.

Findings

Spin relaxation time depends on wire size and growth direction.

Inter-subband scattering significantly affects spin relaxation.

Spin relaxation characteristics differ from bulk and quantum well systems.

Abstract

We investigate the electron spin relaxation of $n$-type InAs quantum wires by numerically solving the fully microscopic kinetic spin Bloch equations with the relevant scattering explicitly included. We find that the quantum-wire size and the growth direction influence the spin relaxation time by modulating the spin-orbit coupling. Due to inter-subband scattering in connection with the spin-orbit interaction, spin-relaxation in quantum wires can show different characteristics from those in bulk or quantum wells and can be effectively manipulated by various means.