Electric-field driven source of photocarriers for tunable electron spin polarization in InGaAs quantum dots

Electric-field control of spin polarization of electrons during injection into InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) was studied via circularly polarized time-resolved photoluminescence. Electric-field modulation of optical spin polarization in QDs will play a key role in future progress of semiconductor opto-spintronics. The tuning of band potentials by applying external electric fields can not only affect spin-injection efficiencies but also switch dominant spin-injection layers. In this study, we developed a QD-based electric-field-effect optical spin device with two different spin-injection layers, which consisted of a GaAs and GaAs/Al_0.15Ga_0.85As superlattice (SL) barriers. The bias-voltage modulation of the optical spin polarization in QDs was demonstrated by changing the spin polarization degree of electrons injected from these barriers into the QD via the electric-field switching of the spin-injection layers. This was achieved by exploiting the difference in spin relaxation properties between bulk GaAs and the SL. This proposed structure, which comprised of one luminescent layer and two spin-injection layers, is highly scalable because the modulation range of optical spin polarization can be enhanced by changing the combination of spin-injection layers, as well as the material used and its layer thickness.