Spin dynamics of isolated donor electrons in phosphorus-doped silicon from high-frequency electron spin resonance

Abstract

We present the spin dynamics of isolated donor electrons in phosphorus-doped silicon at low temperature and in a high magnetic field. We performed a steady-state electron spin resonance (ESR) on the sample with a dopant concentration of 6.5 x 10(16) cm(-3) in a high field of 2.87 T (80 GHz) and at temperatures from 48 down to 1.8 K. As the temperature decreases below 16 K, the resonance spectral line changes from the usual derivative form characteristic of absorptions. Very long spin-lattice relaxation time T(1) at low temperature gives rise to rapid passage effects and results in a dramatic change in the line shape and intensity as a function of temperature. We show that the numerical analysis based on the passage effects well explains the observed spectral changes with temperature. The spin-lattice relaxation time T(1) is derived by numerical fit to the experimental data. We discuss the dynamic nuclear polarization of (31)P nuclear spins which shows up as asymmetric intensities of the hyperfine-split ESR resonance lines.