Valley splitting and spin lifetime enhancement in strained thin silicon films

Spintronics attracts much attention because of the potential to build novel spin-based devices which are superior to nowadays charge-based microelectronic devices. Silicon, the main element of microelectronics, is promising for spin-driven applications. We investigate the surface roughness and electron-phonon limited spin relaxation in silicon films taking into account the coupling between the relevant valleys through the Γ-point. We demonstrate that applying uniaxial stress along the [110] direction considerably suppresses the spin relaxation.