Generalized Elliott-Yafet Theory of Electron Spin Relaxation in Metals: Origin of the Anomalous Electron Spin Lifetime in MgB2

F. Simon, B. Dóra, F. Murányi, A. Jánossy, S. Garaj, L. Forró, S. Bud’ko, C. Petrovic, and P. C. Canfield
Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 177003 – Published 23 October 2008

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the electron-spin relaxation time in MgB2 is anomalous as it does not follow the resistivity above 150 K; it has a maximum around 400 K and decreases for higher temperatures. This violates the well established Elliot-Yafet theory of spin relaxation in metals. The anomaly occurs when the quasiparticle scattering rate (in energy units) is comparable to the energy difference between the conduction and a neighboring bands. The anomalous behavior is related to the unique band structure of MgB2 and the large electron-phonon coupling. The saturating spin relaxation is the spin transport analogue of the Ioffe-Regel criterion of electron transport.

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  • Received 6 August 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.177003

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. Simon1,*, B. Dóra1,2, F. Murányi1,†, A. Jánossy1, S. Garaj3,‡, L. Forró3, S. Bud’ko4, C. Petrovic4,§, and P. C. Canfield4

  • 1Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Institute of Physics and Condensed Matter Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1521 Budapest, Hungary
  • 2Max-Planck-Institut für Physik Komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
  • 3Institute of Physics of Complex Matter, FBS Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 4Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

  • *Corresponding author. simon@esr.phy.bme.hu
  • Present address: University of Zürich, Physics Institute, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Present address: Harvard University, Department of Physics 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
  • §Present address: Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA.

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Vol. 101, Iss. 17 — 24 October 2008

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