2005/01/27 by S. A. Tarasenko, E. L. Ivchenko, Tarasenko, S. A. +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0501673
To be published in Proc. 13th Int. Symp. "Nanostructures: Physics and Technology", St.Petersburg, Russia, 2005
arxiv created 2005/01/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
As is well known the absorption of circularly polarized light in semiconductors results in optical orientation of electron spins and helicity-dependent electric photocurrent, and the absorption of linearly polarized light is accompanied by optical alignment of electron momenta. Here we show that the absorption of unpolarized light in a quantum well (QW) leads to generation of a pure spin current, although both the average electron spin and electric current are vanishing.