Tunneling into ferromagnetic quantum Hall states: Observation of a spin bottleneck

We explore the characteristics of equilibrium tunneling of electrons from a 3D electrode into a high mobility 2D electron system. For most noninteger filing factors, we find that tunneling can be characterized by a single, well-defined tunneling rate. However, for spin-polarized quantum Hall states (nu = 1, 3, and 1/3) tunneling occurs at two distinct rates that differ by up to 2 orders of magnitude. The dependence of the two rates on temperature and tunnel barrier thickness suggests that slow in-plane spin relaxation creates a bottleneck for tunneling of electrons.