Suppression of nuclear polarization near the surface of optically pumped GaAs

M. R. Fitzsimmons, B. J. Kirby, N. W. Hengartner, F. Trouw, M. J. Erickson, S. D. Flexner, T. Kondo, C. Adelmann, C. J. Palmstrøm, P. A. Crowell, W. C. Chen, T. R. Gentile, J. A. Borchers, C. F. Majkrzak, and R. Pynn

Phys. Rev. B 76, 245301 – Published 3 December 2007

Abstract

We measured the spin dependence of polarized neutrons reflected by a GaAs sample as it was optically pumped. This dependence was correlated with the helicity of the circularly polarized light and found to oscillate with neutron wave vector transfer. The data provide definitive evidence that optically induced nuclear polarization in GaAs is not uniform with depth. Quantitative analysis of the data shows that nuclear polarization is suppressed for tens of nanometers near the surface of GaAs.

Received 21 August 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.245301

Authors & Affiliations

M. R. Fitzsimmons¹, B. J. Kirby^1,*, N. W. Hengartner¹, F. Trouw¹, M. J. Erickson², S. D. Flexner², T. Kondo^2,†, C. Adelmann², C. J. Palmstrøm², P. A. Crowell², W. C. Chen³, T. R. Gentile³, J. A. Borchers³, C. F. Majkrzak³, and R. Pynn⁴

¹Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
²University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
³National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
⁴Physics Department, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA

^*Present address: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
^†On leave from Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan.

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Vol. 76, Iss. 24 — 15 December 2007

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