Abstract
We report results of calculations on the ‘‘spin’’-flip relaxation time of holes in semiconductor quantum wells due to hole interaction with static scatterers such as ionized impurities, alloy fluctuations, and s-d exchange (in the case of quantum wells based on diluted magnetic semiconductors). We show that size quantization along the growth axis leads to a drastic quenching of the ‘‘spin’’-flip scattering. This results in hole ‘‘spin’’-flip relaxation times, which can be much longer than the recombination time when the hole in-plane kinetic energy is small compared with the - separation distance.
- Received 14 June 1990
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.43.9687
©1991 American Physical Society