Spin dynamics in semiconductors

This article reviews the current status of spin dynamics in semiconductors which has achieved a lot of progress in the past years due to the fast growing field of semiconductor spintronics. The primary focus is the theoretical and experimental developments of spin relaxation and dephasing in both spin precession in time domain and spin diffusion and transport in spacial domain. A fully microscopic many-body investigation on spin dynamics based on the kinetic spin Bloch equation approach is reviewed comprehensively.Comment: a review article with 193 pages and 1103 references. To be published in Physics Reports

First-principle study of the electronic structures and ferroelectric properties in BaZnF 4

The electronic structures and ferroelectric properties of barium fluoride BaZnF4 were investigated by employing ab initio calculations based on the density-functional theory within generalized gradient approximation. We discussed the possible origin of ferroelectricity of BaZnF4 by the analysis of Born effective charges, orbital-resolved density of states, and distribution of charge density. The results show that the barium and fluorine atoms are very important polarization unity. The calculated spontaneous polarization of 14.2 μC/cm2 by using Berry-phase approach is reasonable agreement with previous experimental data. Barium fluorides are promising candidates for use in nonvolatile memories devices