Electrical Spin Injection and Threshold Reduction in a Semiconductor Laser

Abstract

A spin-polarized vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is demonstrated with electrical spin injection from an $\mathrm{Fe}/{\mathrm{Al}}_{0.1}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.9}\mathrm{As}$ Schottky tunnel barrier. Laser operation with a spin-polarized current results in a maximum threshold current reduction of 11% and degree of circular polarization of 23% at 50 K. A cavity spin polarization of 16.8% is estimated from spin-dependent rate equation analysis of the observed threshold reduction.