We report an optical study of charge transport in graphene. Diffusion of hot carriers in epitaxial graphene and reduced graphene oxide samples are studied using an ultrafast pump-probe technique with a high spatial resolution. Spatiotemporal dynamics of hot carriers after a point-like excitation are monitored. Carrier diffusion coefficients of 11,000 and 5,500 squared centimeters per second are measured in epitaxial graphene and reduced graphene oxide samples, respectively, with a carrier temperature on the order of 3,600 K. The demonstrated optical techniques can be used for non-contact and non-invasive in-situ detection of transport properties of graphene.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

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The ambipolar carrier diffusion in bulk GaAs is studied by using an ultrafast pump-probe technique with a high spatial resolution. Carriers with a point-like spatial profile are excited by a tightly focused pump laser pulse. The spatiotemporal dynamics of the carriers are monitored by a time-delayed and spatially scanned probe pulse. Ambipolar diffusion coefficients are deduced from linear fits to the expansion of the area of the profiles, and are found to decrease from about 170 cm 2 s −1 at 10 K to about 20 cm 2 s −1 at room temperature. Our results are consistent with those deduced from the previously measured mobilities.

Extensive efforts are currently being devoted to developing a new electronic technology, called spintronics, where the spin of electrons is explored to carry information. [1,2] Several techniques have been developed to generate pure spin currents in many materials and structures. [3-10] However, there is still no method available that can be used to directly detect pure spin currents, which carry no net charge current and no net magnetization. Currently, studies of pure spin currents rely on measuring the induced spin accumulation with optical techniques [5, 11-13] or spin-valve configurations. [14-17] However, the spin accumulation does not directly reflect the spatial distribution or temporal dynamics of the pure spin current, and therefore cannot monitor the pure spin current in a real-time and real-space fashion. This imposes severe constraints on research in this field. Here we demonstrate a second-order nonlinear optical effect of the pure spin current. We show that such a nonlinear optical effect, which has never been explored before, can be used for the non-invasive, non-destructive, and real-time imaging of pure spin currents. Since this detection scheme does not rely on optical resonances, it can be generally applied in a wide range of materials with different electronic bandstructures. Furthermore, the control of nonlinear optical properties of materials with pure spin currents may have potential applications in photonics integrated with spintronics.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, supplementary discussion adde

We report observation of intrinsic inverse spin Hall effect in undoped GaAs multiple quantum wells with a sample temperature of 10 K. A transient ballistic pure spin current is injected by a pair of laser pulses through quantum interference. By time resolving the dynamics of the pure spin current, the momentum relaxation time is deduced, which sets the lower limit of the scattering time between electrons and holes. The transverse charge current generated by the pure spin current via the inverse spin Hall effect is simultaneously resolved. We find that the charge current is generated well before the first electron-hole scattering event. Generation of the transverse current in the scattering-free ballistic transport regime provides unambiguous evidence for the intrinsic inverse spin Hall effect.