Abstract :
We report our theoretical investigation on the spin–orbit coupling and g -factor of the X -valley in cubic GaN. We find that the spin–orbit coupling coefficient from sp 3 d 5 s ∗ tight-binding model is 0.029 eV Å, which is comparable with that in cubic GaAs. By employing the k ⋅ p theory, we find that the g -factor in this case is only slightly different from the free electron g -factor. These results are expected to be important for the on-going study on spin dynamics far away from equilibrium in cubic GaN.