Generalized Elliott-Yafet Theory of Electron Spin Relaxation in Metals: Origin of the Anomalous Electron Spin Lifetime in MgB₂

F. Simon^1,*, B. Dóra^1,2, F. Murányi^1,†, A. Jánossy¹, S. Garaj^3,‡, L. Forró³, S. Bud’ko⁴, C. Petrovic^4,§, and P. C. Canfield^4
1Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Institute of Physics and Condensed Matter Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1521 Budapest, Hungary
²Max-Planck-Institut für Physik Komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
³Institute of Physics of Complex Matter, FBS Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
⁴Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

^*Corresponding author.

simon@esr.phy.bme.hu

^†Present address: University of Zürich, Physics Institute, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.

^‡Present address: Harvard University, Department of Physics 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

^§Present address: Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA.