High temperature electron spin relaxation in bulk GaAs

Temperature and electron density dependent measurements of the electron spin relaxation in bulk GaAs are performed using time-and polarization-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. The electron spin relaxation time is dominated in the high temperature regime by the D'yakonov-Perel' [M. I. D'yakonov and V. I. Perel', Sov. Phys. Solid State 13, 3023 (1972)] spin relaxation mechanism and decreases for negligible electron densities from 42 ps at 300 K to 20 ps at 400 K. The measured spin relaxation times are compared with numerical calculations which include electron-phonon momentum scattering and have no adjustable parameters. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.