Abstract:

Under an in-plane magnetic field, the density of states of quasi-two-dimensional carriers deviates from the occasionally stereotypic step-like form both quantitatively and qualitatively. Here we study how this affects the spin-subband populations and the spin-polarization as functions of the temperature, T, and the in-plane magnetic field, B, for narrow to wide dilute-magnetic-semiconductor quantum wells. We examine a wide range of material and structural parameters, focusing on the quantum well width, the magnitude of the spin-spin exchange interaction, and the sheet carrier concentration. Generally, increasing T, the carrier spin-splitting, Uoσ, decreases, augmenting the influence of the “minority”-spin carriers. Increasing B, Uoσ, increases and, accordingly, carriers populate “majority”-spin subbands while they abandon “minority”-spin subbands. Furthermore, in line with the density of states modification, all energetically higher subbands become gradually depopulated. We also indicate the ranges where the system is completely spin-polarized.

Notes:

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