Anisotropy-driven spin relaxation in germanium.
A unique spin depolarization mechanism, induced by the presence of g-factor anisotropy and intervalley scattering, is revealed by spin-transport measurements on long-distance germanium devices in a magnetic field longitudinal to the initial spin orientation. The confluence of electron-phonon scattering (leading to Elliott-Yafet spin flips) and this previously unobserved physics enables the extraction of spin lifetime solely from spin-valve measurements, without spin precession, and in a regime of substantial electric-field-generated carrier heating. We find spin lifetimes in Ge up to several hundreds of nanoseconds at low temperature, far beyond any other available experimental results.
Department of Physics and Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
Pengke
P
Li
Department of Physics and Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Jing
J
Li
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
Lan
L
Qing
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
Hanan
H
Dery
Department of Physics and Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Ian
I
Appelbaum