Abstract Introducing spin-polarized carriers in semiconductor lasers reveals an alternative path to realize room-temperature spintronic applications, beyond the usual magnetoresistive effects. Through carrier recombination, the angular momentum of the spin-polarized carriers is transferred to photons, thus leading to the circularly polarized emitted light. The intuition for the operation of such spin-lasers can be obtained from simple bucket and harmonic oscillator models, elucidating their steady-state and dynamic response, respectively. These lasers extend the functionalities of spintronic devices and exceed the performance of conventional (spin-unpolarized) lasers, including an order of magnitude faster modulation frequency. Surprisingly, this ultrafast operation relies on a short carrier spin relaxation time and a large anisotropy of the refractive index, both viewed as detrimental in spintronics and conventional lasers. Spin-lasers provide a platform to test novel concepts in spin devices and offer progress connected to the advances in more traditional areas of spintronics.

中文翻译：

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自旋激光器：超越磁阻的自旋电子学

摘要 在半导体激光器中引入自旋极化载流子揭示了实现室温自旋电子应用的替代途径，超越了通常的磁阻效应。通过载流子复合，自旋极化载流子的角动量传递给光子，从而产生圆极化的发射光。这种自旋激光器的操作直觉可以从简单的桶形和谐振子模型中获得，分别阐明它们的稳态和动态响应。这些激光器扩展了自旋电子器件的功能并超越了传统（自旋非偏振）激光器的性能，包括一个数量级更快的调制频率。出奇，这种超快操作依赖于较短的载流子自旋弛豫时间和较大的折射率各向异性，这两者在自旋电子学和传统激光器中都被认为是有害的。自旋激光器提供了一个平台来测试自旋器件中的新概念，并提供与更传统的自旋电子学领域的进步相关的进展。