On the origin of spin loss in GaMnN/InGaN light-emitting diodes

Spin polarization of GaMnN/InGaN light-emitting diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy is analyzed. In spite of the ferromagnetic behavior of the GaMnN spin injector, the diodes are shown to exhibit very low efficiency of spin injection. Based on resonant optical orientation spectroscopy, the spin loss in the structures is shown to be largely due to fast spin relaxation within the InGaN spin detector, which itself destroys any spin polarization generated by optical spin orientation or electrical spin injection. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.