Alexander Khaetskii

Electron spin decoherence in quantum dots due to interaction with nuclei

We study the decoherence of a single electron spin in an isolated quantum dot induced by hyperfine interaction with nuclei. The decay is caused by the spatial variation of the electron wave function within the dot, leading to a nonuniform hyperfine coupling A. We evaluate the spin correlation function and find that the decay is not exponential but rather power (inverse logarithm) lawlike. For polarized nuclei we find an exact solution and show that the precession amplitude and the decay behavior can be tuned by the magnetic field. The decay time is given by (planck)N/A, where N is the number of nuclei inside the dot, and the amplitude of precession decays to a finite value. We show that there is a striking difference between the decoherence time for a single dot and the dephasing time for an ensemble of dots.

Phonon-induced decay of the electron spin in quantum dots

We study spin relaxation and decoherence in a GaAs quantum dot due to spin-orbit (SO) interaction. We derive an effective Hamiltonian which couples the electron spin to phonons or any other fluctuation of the dot potential. We show that the spin decoherence time T-2 is as large as the spin relaxation time T-1, under realistic conditions. For the Dresselhaus and Rashba SO couplings, we find that, in leading order, the effective B field can have only fluctuations transverse to the applied B field. As a result, T-2=2T(1) for arbitrarily large Zeeman splittings, in contrast to the naively expected case T-2

Electron spin evolution induced by interaction with nuclei in a quantum dot

We study the decoherence of a single electron spin in an isolated quantum dot induced by hyperfine interaction with nuclei for times smaller than the nuclear spin relaxation time. The decay is caused by the spatial variation of the electron envelope wave function within the dot, leading to a non-uniform hyperfine coupling. We show that the usual treatment of the problem based on the Markovian approximation is impossible because the correlation time for the nuclear magnetic field seen by the electron spin is itself determined by the flip-flop processes. The decay of the electron spin correlation function is not exponential but rather power (inverse logarithm) law-like. For polarized nuclei we find an exact solution and show that the precession amplitude and the decay behavior can be tuned by the magnetic field. The decay time is given by hN/A, where N is the number of nuclei inside the dot and A is a hyperfine constant. The amplitude of precession, reached as a result of the decay, is finite. We show that there is a striking difference between the decoherence time for a single dot and the dephasing time for an ensemble of dots.

Electron spin dynamics in quantum dots and related nanostructures due to hyperfine interaction with nuclei

We review and summarize recent theoretical and experimental work on electron spin dynamics in quantum dots and related nanostructures due to hyperfine interaction with surrounding nuclear spins. This topic is of particular interest with respect to several proposals for quantum information processing in solid state systems. Specifically, we investigate the hyperfine interaction of an electron spin confined in a quantum dot in an s-type conduction band with the nuclear spins in the dot. This interaction is proportional to the square modulus of the electron wavefunction at the location of each nucleus leading to an inhomogeneous coupling, i.e. nuclei in different locations are coupled with different strengths. In the case of an initially fully polarized nuclear spin system an exact analytical solution for the spin dynamics can be found. For not completely polarized nuclei, approximation-free results can only be obtained numerically in sufficiently small systems. We compare these exact results with findings from several approximation strategies.

Spin decay and quantum parallelism

We study the time evolution of a single spin coupled inhomogeneously to a spin environment. Such a system is realized by a single electron spin bound in a semiconductor nanostructure and interacting with surrounding nuclear spins. We find striking dependencies on the type of initial state of the nuclear spin system. Simple product states show a profoundly different behavior than randomly correlated states whose time evolution provides an illustrative example of quantum parallelism and entanglement in a decoherence phenomenon.

Spin injection across magnetic/nonmagnetic interfaces with finite magnetic layers

We have reconsidered the problem of spin injection across ferromagnet/nonmagnetic-semiconductor (FM/NMS) and dilute-magnetic-semiconductor/nonmagnetic-semiconductor (DMS/NMS) interfaces, for structures with finite width d of the magnetic layer (FM or DMS). By using appropriate physical boundary conditions, we find expressions for the resistances of these structures which are in general different from previous results in the literature. When the magnetoresistance of the contacts is negligible, we find that the spin-accumulation effect alone cannot account for the d dependence observed in recent magnetoresistance data. In a limited parameter range, our formulas predict a strong d dependence arising from the magnetic contacts in systems where their magnetoresistances are sizable.

Spin relaxation at the singlet-triplet crossing in a quantum dot

We study spin relaxation in a two-electron quantum dot in the vicinity of the singlet-triplet crossing. The spin relaxation occurs due to a combined effect of the spin-orbit, Zeeman, and electron-phonon interactions. The singlet-triplet relaxation rates exhibit strong variations as a function of the singlet-triplet splitting. We show that the Coulomb interaction between the electrons has two competing effects on the singlet-triplet spin relaxation. One effect is to enhance the relative strength of spin-orbit coupling in the quantum dot, resulting in larger spin-orbit splittings and thus in a stronger coupling of spin to charge. The other effect is to make the charge density profiles of the singlet and triplet look similar to each other, thus diminishing the ability of charge environments to discriminate between singlet and triplet states. We thus find essentially different channels of singlet-triplet relaxation for the case of strong and weak Coulomb interactions. Finally, for the linear in momentum Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit interactions, we calculate the singlet-triplet relaxation rates to leading order in the spin-orbit interaction and find that they are proportional to the second power of the Zeeman energy, in agreement with recent experiments on triplet-to-singlet relaxation in quantum dots.

Spin relaxation in semiconductor mesoscopic systems

Abstract Phonon-assisted spin-flip transitions between the Zeeman sublevels are considered for two different mesoscopic systems: GaAs quantum dots (localized states) and the 2D electron system in the quantum Hall—regime for filling factor 1 (delocalized states). The phonon-assisted spin-flip rates for all spin–orbit-related mechanisms are evaluated. The role of the localization of the electron states in the effectiveness of the spin-lattice relaxation and the different role of the Coulomb interaction for these two systems are discussed. It is shown, for example, that spin-lattice relaxation for the electron localized in a quantum dot is much less effective than for the free electron. Besides, the spin-flip rates due to several other mechanisms not related to the spin–orbit interaction are estimated for the dot electron.

Proposal for a phonon laser utilizing quantum-dot spin states

We propose a nanoscale realization of a phonon laser utilizing phonon-assisted spin flips in quantum dots to amplify sound. Owing to a long spin relaxation time, the device can be operated in a strong pumping regime, in which the population inversion is close to its maximal value allowed under Fermi statistics. In this regime, the threshold for stimulated emission is unaffected by spontaneous spin flips. Considering a nanowire with quantum dots defined along its length, we show that a further improvement arises from confining the phonons to one dimension, and thus reducing the number of phonon modes available for spontaneous emission. Our work calls for the development of nanowire-based, high-finesse phonon resonators.

Intrinsic spin current for an arbitrary hamiltonian and scattering potential

We have described electron spin dynamics in the presence of the spin-orbit interaction and disorder using the spin-density matrix method. Exact solution is obtained for an arbitrary 2D spin-orbit Hamiltonian and arbitrary smoothness of the disorder potential. Spin current depends explicitely on the disorder properties, namely the smoothness of the disorder potential, even in the ballistic limit when broadening by scattering is much smaller than the spin-orbit related splitting of the energy spectrum. In this sense universal intrinsic spin current does not exist.