Spin Transport in Semiconductor heterostructures

The focus of the research performed under this grant has been the investigation of spin transport in magnetic semiconductor heterostructures. The interest in these systems is motivated both by their intriguing physical properties, as the physical embodiment of a spin-polarized Fermi liquid, as well as by their potential applications as spintronics devices. In our work we have analyzed several different problems that affect the spin dynamics in single and bi-layer spin-polarized two-dimensional (2D) systems. The topics of interests ranged from the fundamental aspects of the electron-electron interactions, to collective spin and charge density excitations and spin transport in the presence of the spin-orbit coupling. The common denominator of these subjects is the impact at the macroscopic scale of the spin-dependent electron-electron interaction, which plays a much more subtle role than in unpolarized electron systems. Our calculations of several measurable parameters, such as the excitation frequencies of magneto-plasma modes, the spin mass, and the spin transresistivity, propose realistic theoretical estimates of the opposite-spin many-body effects, in particular opposite-spin correlations, that can be directly connected with experimental measurements.