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Spin–orbit stiffness of the spin‐polarized electron gas
Author(s) -
Baboux F.,
Perez F.,
Ullrich C. A.,
Karczewski G.,
Wojtowicz T.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201600032
Subject(s) - spin polarization , spintronics , fermi gas , spin wave , spin engineering , spin (aerodynamics) , physics , electron , condensed matter physics , spinplasmonics , spin–orbit interaction , excitation , atomic physics , spin hall effect , quantum mechanics , ferromagnetism , thermodynamics
In a spin‐polarized electron gas, Coulomb interaction couples the spin and motion degrees of freedom to build propagating spin waves. The spin wave stiffness S sw quantifies the energy cost to trigger such excitation by perturbing the kinetic energy of the electron gas (i.e. putting it in motion). Here we introduce the concept of spin–orbit stiffness , S so , as the energy necessary to excite a spin wave with a spin polarization induced by spin–orbit coupling. This quantity governs the Coulombic enhancement of the spin–orbit field acting of the spin wave. First‐principles calculations and electronic Raman scattering experiments carried out on a model spin‐polarized electron gas, embedded in a CdMnTe quantum well, demonstrate that S so = S sw . Through optical gating of the structure, we demonstrate the reproducible tuning of S so by a factor of 3, highlighting the great potential of spin–orbit control of spin waves in view of spintronics applications. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)