Magnetic-field dependence of electron spin relaxation in n-type semiconductors -: art. no. 233206

We present a theoretical investigation of the magnetic-field dependence of the longitudinal (T-1) and transverse (T-2) spin-relaxation times of conduction-band electrons in n-type III-V semiconductors. We find that the interplay between the Dyakonov-Perel process and an additional spin-relaxation channel, which originates from the electron wave-vector dependence of the electron g factor, yields a maximal T-2 at a finite magnetic field. We compare our results with existing experimental data on n-type GaAs and make specific additional predictions for the magnetic-field dependence of electron-spin lifetimes.