Spin Injection And Spin-Orbit Coupling In Low-Dimensional Semiconductor Nanostructures

Due to their strong spin-orbit coupling III-V semiconductor nanowires are excellent candidates for electrical spin manipulation. Therefore, a major goal is to tailor spin-orbit coupling in these devices. Direct electrical spin injection into quasi one-dimensional nanowires is demonstrated. Furthermore, the weak antilocalization effect was investigated in InAs nanowires. The quantum corrections to the conductivity are interpreted by developing a quasi-one-dimensional diffusive model. It turns out that by means of doping and electric gating the spin-lifetimes can be tuned significantly. By creating few-electron quantum dots inside these devices the impact of the confinement on the spin relaxation properties is investigated.