Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Spin Polarization near Filling Factor 3/2

Abstract

The spin polarization features of an electron system and the relaxation of nonequilibrium spin excitations near an even-denominator fractional state of 3/2 in a two-dimensional electron system based on the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure are experimentally investigated. It is shown that the 3/2 state is a singular point in the filling factor dependence of the spin ordering of the two-dimensional electron system, at which the spin subsystem is rearranged. A giant slowing down of the relaxation of spin excitations to the ground state is revealed in a certain range of filling factors near filling factor 3/2.