Spin dynamics and spin noise in the presence of randomly varying spin–orbit interaction in a semiconductor quantum wire

Abstract

Using ensemble Monte Carlo simulation, we have studied hot carrier spin dynamics and spin noise in a multi-subband GaAs quantum wire in the presence of a randomly varying Rashba spin–orbit interaction. The random variation reduces the carrier ensemble’s spin dephasing time due to the D’yakonov–Perel’ mechanism, but otherwise makes no qualitative difference to the temporal spin relaxation characteristics. However, it makes a qualitative difference to the spatial spin relaxation characteristics which change from monotonic and smooth to non-monotonic and chaotic because of a complex interplay between carriers in different subbands. As far as spin fluctuation and spin noise are concerned, the random variation has no major effect except that the low-frequency noise power spectral density increases slightly when the magnitude of the Rashba spin–orbit interaction field is varied randomly while holding the direction constant.