Spin relaxation dynamics of quasiclassical electrons in ballistic quantum dots with strong spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We performed path integral simulations of spin evolution controlled by the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the semiclassical regime for chaotic and regular quantum dots. The spin polarization dynamics have been found to be strikingly different from the D'yakonov-Perel' (DP) spin relaxation in bulk systems. Also an important distinction has been found between long time spin evolutions in classically chaotic and regular systems. In the former case the spin polarization relaxes to zero within relaxation time much larger than the DP relaxation, while in the latter case it evolves to a time independent residual value. The quantum mechanical analysis of the spin evolution based on the exact solution of the Schrodinger equation with Rashba SOI has confirmed the results of the classical simulations for the circular dot, which is expected to be valid in general regular systems. In contrast, the spin relaxation down to zero in chaotic dots contradicts what has to be expected from quantum mechanics. This signals on the importance of quantum effects missed in the semiclassical simulations for long time spin dynamics.