Temperature dependence of spin photocurrent spectra induced by Rashba- and Dresselhaus-type circular photogalvanic effect at inter-band excitation in InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

Spin photocurrent spectra induced by Rashba-and Dresselhaus-type circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) at inter-band excitation have been experimentally investigated in InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells at a temperature range of 80 to 290 K. It is found that, the sign of Rashba-type current reverses at low temperatures, while that of Dresselhaus-type remains unchanged. The temperature dependence of ratio of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling parameters, increasing from -6.7 to 17.9, is obtained, and the possible reasons are discussed. We also develop a model to extract the Rashba-type effective electric field at different temperatures. It is demonstrated that excitonic effect will significantly influence the Rashba-type CPGE, while it has little effect on Dresselhaus-type CPGE. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America