Optically-Induced Suppression of Spin Relaxation in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems with Rashba Interaction

A pulsed technique for electrons in 2D systems, in some ways analogous to spin echo in nuclear magnetic resonance, is discussed. We show that a sequence of optical below-band gap pulses can be used to suppress the electron spin relaxation due to the D’yakonov-Perel’ spin relaxation mechanism. The spin relaxation time is calculated for several pulse sequences within a Monte Carlo simulation scheme. The maximum of spin relaxation time as a function of magnitude/width of the pulses corresponds to $\pi$-pulse. It is important that even relatively distant pulses efficiently suppress spin relaxation.