Abstract
An atomistic method of calculating the spin-lattice relaxation times () 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 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 , in excellent quantitative agreement with experimental measurements. The results also show that by engineering electronic wave functions in nanostructures, times can be varied by orders of magnitude.
- Received 14 March 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.246406
© 2014 American Physical Society