Electrical control of the electron spin relaxation in (In)GaAs-based quantum wells

The electrical control of the conduction band electron spin relaxation time is demonstrated in (111)-oriented GaAs quantum wells embedded in a diode structure for all the three spatial directions. By applying an external bias a large increase or decrease of the electron spin relaxation time can be achieved due to the compensation of the Dresselhaus spin-splitting by the Rashba one. A similar effect is demonstrated in (111) piezoelectric sturctures without the need of any external bias.