Spin injection from two-dimensional electron and hole gases in resonant tunneling diodes

Abstract

We have investigated the polarized-resolved photoluminescence from the contact layers and the quantum-well in an n-type GaAs/GaAlAs resonant tunneling diode for magnetic fields up to 19 T. The optical emission from the GaAs contact layers comprises the recombination from highly spin-polarized two-dimensional electron and hole gases with free tunneling carriers. Both the energy position and intensity of this indirect recombination are voltage-dependent and show remarkably abrupt variations near scattering-assisted tunneling resonances. Our results show that these two dimensional gases act as spin-polarized sources for carriers tunneling through the well in resonant tunneling diodes. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3668087]