Spin-lasers: spintronics beyond magnetoresistance

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.