Donor-driven spin relaxation in multi-valley semiconductors

Abstract

We present a theory for spin relaxation of electrons due to scattering off the central-cell potential of impurities in silicon. Taking into account the multivalley nature of the conduction band and the violation of translation symmetry, the spin-flip amplitude is dominated by this short-range impurity scattering after which the electron is transferred to a valley on a different axis in $k$-space (the so called $f$-process). These $f$-processes dominate the spin relaxation at all temperatures, where scattering off the impurity central-cell dominate at low temperatures, and scattering with $\Sigma$-axis phonons at elevated temperatures. To the best of our knowledge, the theory is the first to explain and accurately quantify the empirically-found dependence of spin relaxation on the impurity identity. Accordingly, the new formalism fills a longstanding gap in the spin relaxation theory of $n$-type silicon, and it is valuable for characterization of silicon-based spintronic devices.

4 pages of main text, 7 pages of appendices, 2 Figures

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• An experimental demonstration of room-temperature spin transport in n-type Germanium epilayers
• Room-temperature spin transport in n-Ge probed by four-terminal nonlocal measurements
• Giant g factor tuning of long-lived electron spins in Ge
• Carrier and Spin Coherent Dynamics in Strained Germanium-Tin Semiconductor on Silicon
• Spin injection into Si in three-terminal vertical and four-terminal lateral devices with Fe/Mg/MgO/Si tunnel junctions having an ultrathin Mg insertion layer
• Non-local opto-electrical spin injection and detection in germanium at room temperature
• Electrons, holes, and spin in the IV-VI monolayer 'four-six-enes'
• Pure spin current transport in a SiGe alloy
• Suppressing spin relaxation in silicon
• Spin relaxation via exchange with donor impurity-bound electrons
• Intervalley electron-hole exchange interaction and impurity-assisted recombination of indirect excitons in WS${}_2$ and WSe${}_2$ monolayers
• Optical orientation of electron spins and valence band spectroscopy in germanium
• Investigation of spin scattering mechanism in silicon channels of Fe/MgO/Si lateral spin valves
• Hot-electron effect in spin relaxation of electrically injected electrons in intrinsic Germanium
• Spin-orbit coupling induced two-electron relaxation in silicon donor pairs
• Impurity-driven intervalley spin-flip scattering-induced 2D spin relaxation in silicon