Gate-controlled weak antilocalization effect in inversion layer on p-type HgCdTe

Abstract

We discover weak antilocalization effect of two-dimensional electron gas with one electric subband occupied in the inversion layer on p-type HgCdTe crystal. By fitting the model of Iordanskii, Lyanda-Geller and Pikus to data at varies temperatures and gate voltages, we extract phase coherence and spin-orbit scattering times as functions of temperature and carrier density. We find that Elliot-Yafet mechanism and Nyquist mechanism are the dominating spin decoherence and dephasing mechanisms, respectively. We also find that the Rashba parameter is relatively large and the dependence of Rashba parameter upon carrier density is not monotonic and an optimal carrier density exists for the maximization of spin-orbit coupling.