Optically induced suppression of spin relaxation in two-dimensional electron systems with Rashba interaction

A pulsed technique for electrons in two-dimensional 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 the spin relaxation time as a function of magnitude or width of the pulses corresponds to a π pulse. It is important that even relatively distant pulses efficiently suppress spin relaxation.