  We investigate the characteristic spin dynamics corresponding to
semiconductor quantum dots within the multiband envelope function approximation
(EFA). By numerically solving an $8\times8$ $k\cdot p$ Hamiltonian we treat
systems based on different III-V semiconductor materials.It is shown that, even
in the absence of an applied magnetic field, these systems show intrinsic spin
dynamics governed by intraband and interband transitions leading to
characteristic spin frequencies ranging from the THz to optical frequencies.
