Observations of exciton and carrier spin relaxation in Be doped p-type GaAs

Abstract

We have investigated the exciton and carrier spin relaxation in Be-doped p-type GaAs. Time-resolved spin-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements revealed spin relaxation behaviors between 10 and 100 K. Two PL peaks were observed at 1.511 eV (peak 1) and 1.497 eV (peak 2) at 10 K, and are attributed to the recombination of excitons bound to neutral Be acceptors (peak 1) and the band-to-acceptor transition (peak 2). The spin relaxation times of both PL peaks were measured to be 1.3–3.1 ns at 10–100 K, and found to originate from common electron spin relaxation. The observed existence of a carrier density dependence of the spin relaxation time at 10–77 K indicates that the Bir-Aronov-Pikus process is the dominant spin relaxation mechanism.