Measurement of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit magnetic fields

Lorenz Meier, Gian Salis, Ivan Shorubalko, Emilio Gini, Silke Schoen, Klaus Ensslin

Published 2007-09-16Version 1

Spin-orbit coupling is a manifestation of special relativity. In the reference frame of a moving electron, electric fields transform into magnetic fields, which interact with the electron spin and lift the degeneracy of spin-up and spin-down states. In solid-state systems, the resulting spin-orbit fields are referred to as Dresselhaus or Rashba fields, depending on whether the electric fields originate from bulk or structure inversion asymmetry, respectively. Yet, it remains a challenge to determine the absolute value of both contributions in a single sample. Here we show that both fields can be measured by optically monitoring the angular dependence of the electrons' spin precession on their direction of movement with respect to the crystal lattice. Furthermore, we demonstrate spin resonance induced by the spin-orbit fields. We apply our method to GaAs/InGaAs quantum-well electrons, but it can be used universally to characterise spin-orbit interactions in semiconductors, facilitating the design of spintronic devices.