Anomalous D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in semiconductor quantum wells under strong magnetic field in Voigt configuration

TL;DR

This paper uncovers an anomalous scaling behavior of D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in semiconductor quantum wells under strong magnetic fields, revealing behaviors similar to Elliott-Yafet relaxation and challenging conventional understanding.

Contribution

It demonstrates the unconventional scaling relations of spin relaxation times under strong magnetic fields, highlighting the role of effective inhomogeneous broadening in these phenomena.

Findings

Longitudinal spin relaxation time is proportional to momentum relaxation time.

Transverse spin relaxation time inversely proportional to momentum relaxation in weak scattering.

Anomalous scaling relations originate from the form of effective inhomogeneous broadening.

Abstract

We report an anomalous scaling of the D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation with the momentum relaxation in semiconductor quantum wells under a strong magnetic field in the Voigt configuration. We focus on the case that the external magnetic field is perpendicular to the spin-orbit-coupling--induced effective magnetic field and its magnitude is much larger than the later one. It is found that the longitudinal spin relaxation time is proportional to the momentum relaxation time even in the strong scattering limit, indicating that the D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation shows the Elliott-Yafet-like behaviour. Moreover, the transverse spin relaxation time is inversely proportional (proportional) to the momentum relaxation time in the weak (strong) scattering limit, both in the opposite trends against the well-established conventional D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation behaviours. We further demonstrate that all the above anomalous scaling relations come from the unique form of the effective inhomogeneous broadening.