SPIN-FLIP SCATTERING OF HOLES IN SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM-WELLS

We report results of calculations on the "spin"-flip relaxation time of holes in semiconductor quantum wells due to hole interaction with static scatterers such as ionized impurities, alloy fluctuations, and s-d exchange (in the case of quantum wells based on diluted magnetic semiconductors). We show that size quantization along the growth axis leads to a drastic quenching of the "spin"-flip scattering. This results in hole "spin"-flip relaxation times, which can be much longer than the recombination time when the hole in-plane kinetic energy is small compared with the HH1-LH1 separation distance.