Temperature dependence ofspin depolarization of drifting electronsin n-type GaAs bulks

The influence of temperature and transport conditions on the electronspin relaxation in lightly doped n-type GaAs semiconductors is investigated.A Monte Carlo approach is used to simulate electron transport,including the evolution of spin polarization and relaxation, by taking intoaccount intravalley and intervalley scattering phenomena of the hot electronsin the medium. Spin relaxation lengths and times are computedthrough the D’yakonov–Perel process, which is the more relevant spin relaxationmechanism in the regime of interest (10 < T < 300 K). The decayof the initial spin polarization of the conduction electrons is calculated asa function of the distance in the presence of a static electric field varyingin the range 0.1–2 kV/cm. We find that the electron spin depolarizationlengths and times have a nonmonotonic dependence on both the latticetemperature and the electric field amplitude.