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arXiv · 1003.0494

Prediction of extremely long electron spin lifetimes at room temperature in wurtzite semiconductor quantum wells

N. J. Harmon·W. O. Putikka·R. Joynt
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Abstract

Many proposed spintronics devices require mobile electrons at room temperature with long spin lifetimes. One route to achieving this is to use quantum wells with tunable spin-orbit (SO) parameters. Research has focused on zinc-blende materials such as GaAs which do not have long spin lifetimes at room temperature. We show that wurtzite (w) materials, which possess smaller SO coupling due to being low-Z, are better suited for spintronics applications. This leads to predictions of spin lifetimes in w-AlN exceeding 2 ms at helium temperatures and, relevant to spintronic devices, spin lifetimes up to 0.5 $μs$ at room temperature.

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N. J. Harmon, W. O. Putikka, R. Joynt. 2011-02-10. Prediction of extremely long electron spin lifetimes at room temperature in wurtzite semiconductor quantum wells. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3555628

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