Electron Spin-Lattice Relaxation of Substitutional Nitrogen in Silicon: The Role of Disorder and Motional Effects

In a previous investigation, the authors proposed nitrogen as a possible candidate for exploiting the donor spin in silicon quantum devices. This system is characterized by a ground state deeper than the other group V impurities in silicon, offering less stringent requirements on the device temperature necessary to access the unionized state. The nitrogen donor is slightly displaced from the substitutional site, and upon heating, the system undergoes a motional transition. In the present article, we show the results from our investigation on the spin–relaxation times in natSi and 28Si substrates and discuss the motional effects on relaxation. The stretched exponential relaxation observed is interpreted as a distribution of spin–lattice relaxation times, whose origin is also discussed. This information greatly contributes to the assessment of a nitrogen-doped silicon system as a potential candidate for quantum devices working at temperatures higher than those required for other group V donors in silicon.