Spin relaxation near the metal-insulator transition: dominance of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling.
We identify the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling as the source of the dominant spin-relaxation mechanism in the impurity band of a wide class of n-doped zinc blende semiconductors. The Dresselhaus hopping terms are derived and incorporated into a tight-binding model of impurity sites, and they are shown to unexpectedly dominate the spin relaxation, leading to spin-relaxation times in good agreement with experimental values. This conclusion is drawn from two complementary approaches: an analytical diffusive-evolution calculation and a numerical finite-size scaling study of the spin-relaxation time.
Departamento de Física, FCEN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Pab. I, C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Guido A
GA
Intronati
Pablo I
PI
Tamborenea
Dietmar
D
Weinmann
Rodolfo A
RA
Jalabert