Spin Relaxation of Conduction Electrons in Semiconductors Due to Interaction with Nuclear Spins

TL;DR

This paper investigates how hyperfine interactions with nuclear spins cause conduction electron spin relaxation in semiconductors, deriving relaxation times and exploring nuclear spin polarization effects for spintronics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of electron spin relaxation times due to hyperfine interactions and derives master equations for the spin density matrix.

Findings

Calculated electron spin relaxation times in semiconductors.

Derived master equations for electron spin dynamics.

Showed nuclear polarization can influence electron spins.

Abstract

Relaxation of conduction electron spins in a semiconductor owing to the hyperfine interaction with spin-1/2 nuclei, in zero applied magnetic field, is investigated. We calculate the electron spin relaxation time scales, in order to evaluate the importance of this relaxation mechanism. Master equations for the electron spin density matrix are derived and solved. Polarized nuclear spins can be used to polarize the electrons in spintronic devices.