Long-lived spin coherence states in semiconductor heterostructures

Abstract

We study evolution of electron spin coherence having nonhomogeneous direction of spin polarization vector in semiconductor heterostructures. It is found that the electron spin relaxation time due to the D'yakonov-Perel' relaxation mechanism essentially depends on the initial spin polarization distribution. This effect has its origin in the coherent spin precession of electrons diffusing in the same direction. We predict a long spin relaxation time of a novel structure: a spin coherence standing wave and discuss its experimental realization.