  The spin relaxation induced by the Elliott-Yafet mechanism and the extrinsic
spin Hall conductivity due to the skew-scattering are investigated in 5d
transition-metal ultrathin films with self-adatom impurities as scatterers. The
values of the Elliott-Yafet parameter and of the spin-flip relaxation rate
reveal a correlation with each other that is in agreement with the Elliott
approximation. At 10-layer thickness, the spin-flip relaxation time in 5d
transition-metal films is quantitatively reported about few hundred nanoseconds
at atomic percent which is one and two orders of magnitude shorter than that in
Au and Cu thin films, respectively. The anisotropy effect of the Elliott-Yafet
parameter and of the spin-flip relaxation rate with respect to the direction of
the spin-quantization axis in relation to the crystallographic axes is also
analyzed. We find that the anisotropy of the spin-flip relaxation rate is
enhanced due to the Rashba surface states on the Fermi surface, reaching values
as high as 97% in 10-layer Hf(0001) film or 71% in 10-layer W(110) film.
Finally, the spin Hall conductivity as well as the spin Hall angle due to the
skew-scattering off self-adatom impurities are calculated using the Boltzmann
approach. Our calculations employ a relativistic version of the
first-principles full-potential Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green function method.
