Physical Limits of the ballistic and non-ballistic Spin-Field-Effect Transistor: Spin Dynamics in Remote Doped Structures

TL;DR

This paper explores how random fluctuations in spin-orbit coupling in remote-doped 2D electron systems limit spin relaxation times, impacting the performance of spin field-effect transistors in spintronics applications.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the effects of randomness in spin-orbit coupling on spin relaxation in specific quantum well systems, highlighting physical limitations for device operation.

Findings

Random spin precession limits spin relaxation time.

Suppression of Dyakonov-Perel' mechanism enhances device potential.

Randomness imposes fundamental physical constraints on spin transistor performance.

Abstract

We investigate the spin dynamics and relaxation in remotely-doped two dimensional electron systems where the dopants lead to random fluctuations of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Due to the resulting random spin precession, the spin relaxation time is limited by the strength and spatial scale of the random contribution to the spin-orbit coupling. We concentrate on the role of the randomness for two systems where the direction of the spin-orbit field does not depend on the electron momentum: the spin field-effect transistor with balanced Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings and the (011) quantum well. Both of these systems are considered as promising for the spintronics applications because of the suppression of the Dyakonov-Perel' mechanism there makes the realization of a spin field effect transistor in the diffusive regime possible. We demonstrate that the spin relaxation through the randomness of spin-orbit coupling imposes important physical limitations on the operational properties of these devices.