Resonant spin amplification meets electron spin resonance in n -GaAs

Periodic excitation of electron spin polarization by consecutive laser pulses in phase with Larmor spin precession about a magnetic field results in resonant spin amplification (RSA). We observe a drastic modification of RSA in n-doped bulk GaAs under the influence of external oscillating magnetic field. We find a double-peaked electron spin resonance instead of a single-peaked resonance expected without optical pumping. The frequency splitting increases linearly with amplitude of field oscillations, while the spin deviation increases quadratically. Moreover, we show that the oscillating field can both significantly suppress RSA and induce new conditions for resonance. Using quaternions to describe spin rotations, we develop a theory that simultaneously considers spin precession, decay, and amplification and reproduces the entire set of the experimental data. Using the radio-frequency field allows one to control the conditions of RSA and achieve fine tuning of average spin polarization without modifying the parameters of optical pumping.