Spin-orbit interaction in InAs/GaSb heterostructures quantified by weak antilocalization

TL;DR

This study investigates the spin-orbit interaction in InAs/GaSb heterostructures, revealing that the Elliott-Yafet mechanism dominates and demonstrating control of SOI length via electrostatic gating, which is promising for spintronic devices.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis showing Elliott-Yafet as the dominant SOI relaxation mechanism in these heterostructures, contrasting previous assumptions.

Findings

Elliott-Yafet mechanism dominates SOI relaxation.

SOI length can be tuned with electrostatic gates.

Results align with recent studies on similar systems.

Abstract

We study the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in InAs/ GaSb and InAs quantum wells. We show through temperature- and gate-dependent magnetotransport measurements of weak antilocalization that the dominant spin-orbit relaxation mechanism in our low-mobility heterostructures is Elliott-Yafet and not Dyakonov-Perel in the form of the Rashba or Dresselhaus SOI as previously suggested. We compare our findings with recent work on this material system and show that the SOI length lies within the same range. The SOI length may be controlled using an electrostatic gate, opening up prospects for developing spintronic applications.