Rui Li

Controlling a nanowire spin-orbit qubit via electric-dipole spin resonance.

A semiconductor nanowire quantum dot with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) can be used to achieve a spin-orbit qubit. In contrast to a spin qubit, the spin-orbit qubit can respond to an external ac electric field, an effect called electric-dipole spin resonance. Here we develop a theory that can apply in the strong SOC regime. We find that there is an optimal SOC strength η(opt)=√2/2, where the Rabi frequency induced by the ac electric field becomes maximal. Also, we show that both the level spacing and the Rabi frequency of the spin-orbit qubit have periodic responses to the direction of the external static magnetic field. These responses can be used to determine the SOC in the nanowire.

Controllable exchange coupling between two singlet-triplet qubits

We study controllable exchange coupling between two singlet-triplet qubits. We start from the original second quantized Hamiltonian of a quadruple quantum dot system and obtain the effective spin-spin interaction between the two qubits using the projection operator method. Under a strong uniform external magnetic field and an inhomogeneous local micromagnetic field, the effective interqubit coupling is of the Ising type, and the coupling strength can be expressed in terms of quantum dot parameters. Finally, we discuss how to generate various two-qubit operations using this controllable coupling, such as entanglement generation, and a controlled-not gate.

Hyperfine interaction mediated electric-dipole spin resonance: the role of frequency modulation

The electron spin in a semiconductor quantum dot can be coherently controlled by an external electric field, an effect called electric-dipole spin resonance (EDSR). Several mechanisms can give rise to the EDSR effect, among which there is a hyperfine mechanism, where the spin-electric coupling is mediated by the electron–nucleus hyperfine interaction. Here, we investigate the influence of frequency modulation (FM) on the spin-flip efficiency. Our results reveal that FM plays an important role in the hyperfine mechanism. Without FM, the electric field almost cannot flip the electron spin; the spin-flip probability is only about 20%. While under FM, the spin-flip probability can be improved to approximately 70%. In particular, we find that the modulation amplitude has a lower bound, which is related to the width of the fluctuated hyperfine field.

Spin-orbit coupling and electric-dipole spin resonance in a nanowire double quantum dot

We study the electric-dipole transitions for a single electron in a double quantum dot located in a semiconductor nanowire. Enabled by spin-orbit coupling (SOC), electric-dipole spin resonance (EDSR) for such an electron can be generated via two mechanisms: the SOC-induced intradot pseudospin states mixing and the interdot spin-flipped tunneling. The EDSR frequency and strength are determined by these mechanisms together. For both mechanisms the electric-dipole transition rates are strongly dependent on the external magnetic field. Their competition can be revealed by increasing the magnetic field and/or the interdot distance for the double dot. To clarify whether the strong SOC significantly impact the electron state coherence, we also calculate relaxations from excited levels via phonon emission. We show that spin-flip relaxations can be effectively suppressed by the phonon bottleneck effect even at relatively low magnetic fields because of the very large g-factor of strong SOC materials such as InSb.

Anisotropic exchange coupling in a nanowire double quantum dot with strong spin-orbit coupling

A spin-orbit qubit is a hybrid qubit that contains both orbital and spin degrees of freedom of an electron in a quantum dot. Here we study the exchange coupling between two spin-orbit qubits in a nanowire double quantum dot (DQD) with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We find that while the total tunneling in the DQD is irrelevant to the SOC, both the spin-conserved and spin-flipped tunnelings are SOC dependent and can compete with each other in the strong SOC regime. Moreover, the Coulomb repulsion between electrons can combine with the SOC-dependent tunnelings to yield an anisotropic exchange coupling between the two spin-orbit qubits. Also, we give an explicit physical mechanism for this anisotropic exchange coupling.

The impacts of the quantum-dot confining potential on the spin-orbit effect

For a nanowire quantum dot with the confining potential modeled by both the infinite and the finite square wells, we obtain exactly the energy spectrum and the wave functions in the strong spin-orbit coupling regime. We find that regardless of how small the well height is, there are at least two bound states in the finite square well: one has the σx

Energy spectrum, the spin polarization, and the optical selection rules of the Kronig-Penney superlattice model with spin-orbit coupling

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Determination of the spin-orbit coupling in a nanowire via electric-dipole spin resonance

Pu2009=u2009−1 symmetry and the other has the σx