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Coherent phonon detection gated by transient spin-polarized electrons

Coherent phonon detection gated by transient spin-polarized electrons
Coherent phonon detection gated by transient spin-polarized electrons

Manipulating electron spins on ultrashort timescales shows promise in the field of data processing. Because of the direct electron-photon coupling, photons have been widely used for such studies, but not phonons. Here we tie coherent phonon detection to transient spin populations. We optically excite gigahertz picosecond phonon wave packets in a metal-coated GaAs slab containing GaAs/Al0.4Ga0.6As multiple quantum wells on the opposite side. Before the phonon wave-packet arrival, circularly polarized light induces a transient spin polarization. Phonon-induced ultrafast polarization rotation and reflectivity changes contingent on the transient spin population are detected by a heterodyne modulation technique. With an analytical model, we posit the presence of significant second-order interactions, enabled by spins, in the coherent-phonon optical detection. Applications include transient spin population monitoring and novel spintronic nanodevices.

1550-235X
Lagoudakis, Pavlos
ea50c228-f006-4edf-8459-60015d961bbf
Lagoudakis, Pavlos
ea50c228-f006-4edf-8459-60015d961bbf

Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) Coherent phonon detection gated by transient spin-polarized electrons. Physical Review B, 103 (24), [L241201]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.103.L241201).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Manipulating electron spins on ultrashort timescales shows promise in the field of data processing. Because of the direct electron-photon coupling, photons have been widely used for such studies, but not phonons. Here we tie coherent phonon detection to transient spin populations. We optically excite gigahertz picosecond phonon wave packets in a metal-coated GaAs slab containing GaAs/Al0.4Ga0.6As multiple quantum wells on the opposite side. Before the phonon wave-packet arrival, circularly polarized light induces a transient spin polarization. Phonon-induced ultrafast polarization rotation and reflectivity changes contingent on the transient spin population are detected by a heterodyne modulation technique. With an analytical model, we posit the presence of significant second-order interactions, enabled by spins, in the coherent-phonon optical detection. Applications include transient spin population monitoring and novel spintronic nanodevices.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 14 May 2021
Published date: 1 June 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: We thank D. Schuh, T. Korn, Ch. Schüller, and M. Henini for samples, and J.- W. Kim, A. V. Scherbakov, and E. Perrone for valuable discussions. We acknowledge Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. This work has also been supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant No. EP/M025330/1 on Hybrid Polaritonics. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 American Physical Society.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 450288
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/450288
ISSN: 1550-235X
PURE UUID: 02c1871b-616b-43e1-8642-44ca659d96fd
ORCID for Pavlos Lagoudakis: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3557-5299

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Date deposited: 20 Jul 2021 16:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 12:54

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Author: Pavlos Lagoudakis ORCID iD

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