Optical orientation of free charge carriers in semiconductors can lead to the spin orientation of carriers localized on impurities due to the exchange interaction between them. In this work we demonstrate that this effect can result in the photoconductivity dependence on the degree of circular polarization of the exciting light. The presented theory explains the photoconductivity observed in n-type GaAs at low temperatures, which depends on the value of the average electron spin, but not on its sign and decreases in a weak magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of incident radiation. Comparison of calculations with experimental data allows to estimate the parameters of spin-dependent scattering on neutral impurities, which are difficult to determine from other experiments. It is shown that the parameters of materials that determine their spin properties can be found from simple electrical measurements and without applying an external magnetic field.

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• Electrical conductivity
• Optical generation of spin carriers
• Spin relaxation
• Doped semiconductors
• Semiconductors
• Boltzmann theory
• Drude model