Electron-electron scattering effect on spin relaxation in multi-valley nanostructures
Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute RAS - 194021 St.-Petersburg, Russia
Corresponding author: glazov@coherent.ioffe.ru
Received:
19
June
2009
Accepted:
19
August
2009
We develop a theory of effects of electron-electron collisions on the Dyakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in multi-valley quantum wells. It is shown that the electron-electron scattering rate which governs the spin relaxation is different from that in a single-valley system. The theory is applied to Si/SiGe (001)-grown quantum wells where two valleys are simultaneously populated by free carriers. The dependences of the spin relaxation rate on temperature, electron concentration and valley-orbit splitting are calculated and discussed. We demonstrate that in a wide range of temperatures the electron-electron collisions can govern spin relaxation in high-quality Si/SiGe quantum wells.
PACS: 72.25.Rb – Spin relaxation and scattering / 71.70.Ej – Spin-orbit coupling, Zeeman and Stark splitting, Jahn-Teller effect
© EPLA, 2009