arXiv · 1501.04089
Spin-lattice relaxation times of single donors and donor clusters in silicon
Abstract
An atomistic method of calculating the spin-lattice relaxation times ($T_1$) is presented for donors in silicon nanostructures comprising of millions of atoms. The method takes into account the full band structure of silicon including the spin-orbit interaction. The electron-phonon Hamiltonian, and hence the deformation potential, is directly evaluated from the strain-dependent tight-binding Hamiltonian. The technique is applied to single donors and donor clusters in silicon, and explains the variation of $T_1$ with the number of donors and electrons, as well as donor locations. Without any adjustable parameters, the relaxation rates in a magnetic field for both systems are found to vary as $B^5$ in excellent quantitative agreement with experimental measurements. The results also show that by engineering electronic wavefunctions in nanostructures, $T_1$ times can be varied by orders of magnitude.
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Yu-Ling Hsueh, Holger Büch, Yaohua Tan, Yu Wang, Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg, Gerhard Klimeck, Michelle Y. Simmons, Rajib Rahman. 2015-01-16. Spin-lattice relaxation times of single donors and donor clusters in silicon. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.113.246406
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