2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/25764As is well known the absorption of circularly polarized light in semiconductors results in optical orientation of electron spins and helicity-dependent electric photocurrent, and the absorption of linearly polarized light is accompanied by optical alignment of electron momenta. Here we show that the absorption of unpolarized light in a quantum well (QW) leads to generation of a pure spin current, although both the average electron spin and electric current are vanishing.To be published in Proc. 13th Int. Symp. "Nanostructures: Physics and Technology", St.Petersburg, Russia, 2005Mesoscale and Nanoscale PhysicsMaterials Sciencetext