Anisotropic spin dephasing of impurity-bound electron spins in ZnO

Abstract

We investigate the electron spin dynamics of n-type c-axis oriented bulk zinc oxide (ZnO) by using time-resolved Kerr rotation and resonant spin amplification measurements. Calculating resonant spin amplification using an anisotropic spin dephasing model reveals that there are two species involved in the spin dynamics, which we attribute to conduction and impurity-bound electron spins, respectively. We find that the impurity-bound electron spin dephasing mechanism is strongly anisotropic due to anisotropic exchange interactions. The identification of the two spin species and their dephasing mechanisms is further supported by the temperature, power, and wavelength dependence of the spin coherence measurements.