Spin polarization and spin-dependent scattering of holes observed in transverse magnetic focusing

In two-dimensional systems with a spin-orbit interaction, magnetic focusing can be used to create a spatial separation of particles with different spin. Here we measure hole magnetic focusing for two different magnitudes of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. We find that when the Rashba spin-orbit magnitude is large there is significant attenuation of one of the focusing peaks, which is conventionally associated with a change in the spin polarization. We instead show that in hole systems with a k3 spin-orbit interaction, this peak suppression is due to a change in the scattering of one spin state, not a change in spin polarization. We also show that the change in scattering length extracted from magnetic focusing is consistent with results obtained from measurements of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. This result suggests that scattering must be considered when relating focusing peak amplitude to spin polarization in hole systems.