Microscopic analysis of the coherent optical generation and the decay of charge and spin currents in semiconductor heterostructures

Original · EN

The coherent optical injection and temporal decay of spin and charge currents in semiconductor heterostructures is described microscopically, including excitonic effects, carrier LO-phonon and carrier-carrier scattering, as well as nonperturbative light-field-induced intraband and interband excitations. A nonmonotonous dependence of the currents on the intensities of the laser beams is predicted. Enhanced damping of the spin current relative to the charge current is obtained as a consequence of spin-dependent Coulomb scattering.