The role of electron-electron scattering in spin transport

TL;DR

This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to study how electron-electron scattering affects spin transport in semiconductor heterostructures, revealing different dominant decoherence mechanisms in GaAs and InSb.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of electron-electron scattering on spin relaxation mechanisms and compares spin transport in different semiconductor materials.

Findings

Electron-electron scattering suppresses the Dyakonov-Perel mechanism.

Electron-electron scattering enhances the Elliott-Yafet mechanism.

InSb exhibits lower spin relaxation rates than GaAs.

Abstract

We investigate spin transport in quasi 2DEG formed by III-V semiconductor heterojunctions using the Monte Carlo method. The results obtained with and without electron-electron scattering are compared and appreciable difference between the two is found. The electron-electron scattering leads to suppression of Dyakonov-Perel mechanism (DP) and enhancement of Elliott-Yafet mechanism (EY). Finally, spin transport in InSb and GaAs heterostructures is investigated considering both DP and EY mechanisms. While DP mechanism dominates spin decoherence in GaAs, EY mechanism is found to dominate in high mobility InSb. Our simulations predict a lower spin relaxation/decoherence rate in wide gap semiconductors which is desirable for spin transport.