Excitonic effects on electron spin orientation and relaxation in wurtzite GaN

Abstract

Excitonic effects on electron spin orientation and relaxation in wurtzite GaN are investigated with photon-energy-dependent time-resolved Kerr rotation spectroscopy at low temperatures. It is observed that the spin orientation generated with circularly polarized light can be manipulated with photon energy upon the excitation energy being resonated with various fine energy levels in the band structure. Three reversals of the spin orientation and a remarkable reduce of spin relaxation time are obtained, which is caused by the photon-energy dependent transitions from the heavy and light hole bands to the exciton levels and the conduction band edge. A long spin relaxation time of 1.7 ns is attributed to the spin polarization of donor-bound electrons as the formation of donor-bound excitons, while the spin relaxation time of the conduction band electrons is shorter and shows a nonmonotonic dependence on the optical excitation power, revealing the dominant role of the D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation mechanism in wurtzite GaN.