Spin relaxation of electrons and holes in zinc-blende semiconductors

Z. G. Yu, S. Krishnamurthy, Mark van Schilfgaarde, and N. Newman

Phys. Rev. B 71, 245312 – Published 14 June 2005

Abstract

We develop a procedure to calculate spin relaxation times of electrons and holes in semiconductors using full band structures. The spin-orbit (SO) interaction is included in the unperturbed Hamiltonian. With the use of spin projection operators, we calculate electron and hole spin relaxation from both Elliott-Yafet and D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanisms, and quantitatively explain measurements of GaAs. The predicted relaxation times of GaN are longer for electrons, but shorter for holes. We find that the valence band SO splitting at the zone center is not a good indicator of SO coupling for electrons.