Observation of coherent oscillations in a single electron spin

Rabi nutations and Hahn echo modulation of a single electron spin in a single defect center have been observed. The coherent evolution of the spin quantum state is followed via optical detection of the spin state. Coherence times up to several microseconds at room temperature have been measured. Optical excitation of the spin states leads to decoherence. Quantum beats between electron spin transitions in a single spin Hahn echo experiment are observed. A closer analysis reveals that beats also result from the hyperfine coupling of the electron spin to a single 14N nuclear spin. The results are analyzed in terms of a density matrix approach of an electron spin interacting with two oscillating fields.     

自旋密度光栅和本征GaAs量子阱中的电子自旋双极扩散

为研究空穴对自旋极化电子扩散的影响,提出用自旋密度光栅方法来观察电子自旋扩散过程。由飞秒激光在本征GaAs多量子阱中激发产生瞬态自旋光栅和瞬态自旋密度光栅,并用于研究电子自旋扩散和电子自旋双极扩散。实验测得自旋双极扩散系数Das ＝25.4 cm 2/s,低于自旋扩散系数Ds ＝113.0 cm 2/s,表明自旋密度光栅中电子自旋扩散受到空穴的显著影响。     

Spin dependent 2D electron scattering by nanomagnets

The 2D scattering problem of an electron by a magnetized nanoparticle is solved in the Born approximation with account of the dipole-dipole interaction of the magnetic moments of electron and nanomagnet. The scattering amplitudes in this problem are the two-component spinors. They are obtained as functions of the electron spin orientation, the electron energy and show anisotropy in scattering angle. The initially polarized beam of electrons scattered by the nanomagnet consists of electrons with no spin flipped and spin flipped. The majority of electrons with no spin flipped are scattered by small angles. The majority electrons with spin flipped are scattered in the vicinity of the scattering angles π/2 and 3π/2. This can be used as one more method of controlling the spin currents.     

Collective state of electrons and impurities with a spin

The problem of states of an electron system interacting with impurities that have a spin of 1/2 is considered. It is shown that in the calculation of the energy of the system, the electron spin-flip processes and the formation of electron–hole–impurity flip spin (hole against the background of electrons with another spin projection) play the major role. Such complexes are accumulated in the system (a sort of Bose condensate of complexes is formed); this reduces the energy of the system, which is a linear function of the initial interaction of an electron with the impurity spin (in contrast, for example, to the result obtained in perturbation theory). The hole-type excitation and the spin excitation have a gap in the spectrum. Small parameters of the problem are the interaction of electrons with impurity spins and the number of impurities. The electron–electron interaction is not taken into account. Impurities are assumed to be distributed at random, and calculations are performed using the known averaging over the positions of impurities.     

自旋相关的电子隧穿和自旋极化

研究了电子的自旋相关的隧穿和极化。在外加磁场的作用下，自旋向上的电子与自旋向下的电子具有不同的隧穿系数。当电子的自旋方向与磁场方向相反时，其隧穿概率受到磁场的抑制而变小；反之，当两平行时，电子的了隧穿系数增大。这种差异可以用本中定义的自旋极化率来表示。本对不同磁场下的自旋极化率进行了计算，结果也表明当电子的动能较小，这种自旋极化的效应越显。     

Effect of electron-electron interaction on spin relaxation of charge carriers in semiconductors

An analysis of spin dynamics is presented for semiconductor systems without inversion symmetry that exhibit spin splitting. It is shown that electron-electron interaction reduces the rate of the Dyakonov-Perel (precession) mechanism of spin relaxation both via spin mixing in the momentum space and via the Hartree-Fock exchange interaction in spin-polarized electron gas. The change in the Hartree-Fock contribution with increasing nonequilibrium spin polarization is analyzed. Theoretical predictions are compared with experimental results on spin dynamics in GaAs/AlGaAs-based quantum-well structures. The effect of electron-electron collisions is examined not only for two-dimensional electron gas in a quantum well, but also for electron gas in a bulk semiconductor and a quantum wire.     

Electron spin dynamics in a self-assembled semiconductor quantum dot: the limit of low magnetic fields

Using the trion as an optical probe, we uncover novel electron spin dynamics in CdSe/ZnSe Stranski-Krastanov quantum dots. The longitudinal spin lifetime obeys an inverse power law associated with recharging processes in the dot ensemble. No hint at spin-orbit mediated spin relaxation is found. At very weak magnetic fields (< 50 mT), electron spin dynamics related to the hyperfine interaction with the lattice nuclei is uncovered. A strong Knight field gives rise to nuclear ordering and formation of dynamical polarization on a 100-micros time scale under continuous electron spin pumping. The associated spin transients are temperature robust and can be observed up to 100 K.     

Disturbance of spin equilibrium by current through the interface of noncollinear ferromagnets

Boundary conditions are derived that determine the penetration of spin current through an interface of two noncollinear ferromagnets with an arbitrary angle between their magnetization vectors. We start from the well-known transformation properties of an electron spin wave functions under the rotation of a quantization axis. It allows directly find the connection between partial electric current densities for different spin subbands of the ferromagnets. No spin scattering is assumed in the near interface region, so that spin conservation takes place when electron intersects the boundary. The continuity conditions are found for partial chemical potential differences in the situation. Spatial distribution of nonequilibrium electron magnetizations is calculated under the spin current flowing through a contact of two semi-infinite ferromagnets. The distribution describes the spin accumulation effect by current and corresponding shift of the potential drop at the interface. These effects appear strongly dependent on the relation between spin contact resistances at the interface.     

Optical studies of spin precession in magnetic two-dimensional electron gases

Magnetic two-dimensional electron gases are studied using time-resolved Kerr and Faraday rotation spectroscopy in the Voigt geometry. The data directly reveal both electron and Mn spin precession in modest transverse fields. Scattering by Mn ions dominates the electron spin relaxation processes in these materials, and prevents the electron gas from acquiring a long-lived spin polarization as observed in non-magnetic structures. Nonetheless, a persistent Mn spin polarization occurs which creates a oscillating magnetic field within the electron gas for hundreds of picoseconds.     

Ultrafast electron spin dynamics in bulk CdTe investigated by femtosecond pump-probe reflection spectroscopy

The transient spin polarization dynamics in bulk cadmium telluride (CdTe) at 70 K is investigated by the circularly polarized pump-probe reflection technique. A general expression is derived from the rate equations of a two-level system with small signal approximation to describe the light-helicity-dependent reflection spectrum. The initial degree of electron spin polarization in the excited state and the electron spin relaxation time in bulk CdTe at low temperature with different carrier density are analyzed according to this model. Our experimental results reveal that the D?yakonov–Perel? mechanism based on a fully microscopic kinetic spin Bloch equation (microscopic KSBE) approach dominates in the electron spin relaxation process in bulk CdTe crystal.     

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization in III–V Semiconductors

We report on electron spin resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance and Overhauser shift experiments on two of the most commonly used III–V semiconductors, GaAs and InP. Localized electron centers in these semiconductors have extended wavefunctions and exhibit strong electron–nuclear hyperfine coupling with the nuclei in their vicinity. These interactions not only play a critical role in electron and nuclear spin relaxation mechanisms, but also result in transfer of spin polarization from the electron spin system to the nuclear spin system. This transfer of polarization, known as dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), may result in an enhancement of the nuclear spin polarization by several orders of magnitude under suitable conditions. We determine the critical range of doping concentration and temperature conducive to DNP effects by studying these semiconductors with varying doping concentration in a wide temperature range. We show that the electron spin system in undoped InP exhibits electric current-induced spin polarization. This is consistent with model predictions in zinc-blende semiconductors with strong spin–orbit effects.     

自旋极化电子束及其应用

自旋极化电子束的获得,为自旋极化电子与原子碰撞符合实验研究奠定了基础,通过符合实验,已经能够获得电子原子碰撞的更多的信息,而且能够探测到碰撞过程中的自旋相关效应,并为分子结构及固体表面的研究提供了一种新的研究手段.     

Coherent state transfer between an electron and nuclear spin in (15)N@C(60)

Electron spin qubits in molecular systems offer high reproducibility and the ability to self-assemble into larger architectures. However, interactions between neighboring qubits are "always on," and although the electron spin coherence times can be several hundred microseconds, these are still much shorter than typical times for nuclear spins. Here we implement an electron-nuclear hybrid scheme which uses coherent transfer between electron and nuclear spin degrees of freedom in order to both effectively turn on or off interqubit coupling mediated by dipolar interactions and benefit from the long nuclear spin decoherence times (T(2n)). We transfer qubit states between the electron and (15)N nuclear spin in (15)N@C(60) with a two-way process fidelity of 88%, using a series of tuned microwave and radio frequency pulses and measure a nuclear spin coherence lifetime of over 100 ms.     

Electrical detection of coherent nuclear spin oscillations in phosphorus-doped silicon using pulsed ENDOR

We demonstrate the electrical detection of pulsed X-band electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) in phosphorus-doped silicon at 5 K. A pulse sequence analogous to Davies ENDOR in conventional electron spin resonance is used to measure the nuclear spin transition frequencies of the (31)P nuclear spins, where the (31)P electron spins are detected electrically via spin-dependent transitions through Si/SiO(2) interface states, thus not relying on a polarization of the electron spin system. In addition, the electrical detection of coherent nuclear spin oscillations is shown, demonstrating the feasibility to electrically read out the spin states of possible nuclear spin qubits.     

Properties of specific electron helical states leads to spin filtering effect in dsDNA molecules

In a recent paper, Gohler et al. [1] report that a high efficiency electron spin filter can be constructed from an adsorbed monolayer of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Understanding the mechanisms responsible for spin filtering under these conditions has proven to be a challenge, as classical analysis fails to account for the high degree of polarization observed. In this paper we show that these observations can be understood since conduction electrons in the DNA molecule are characterized by specific helical states having a magnetic moment opposite to the direction of the electron wavevector. These helical states are fundamental to the quantum-mechanical properties of periodic structures with helical symmetry. Free electrons passing through the DNA monolayer interact with these helical states, but the strength of this interaction depends on the relative orientation of the electron spin and the magnetic moment associated with the possible helical states. One of these configurations leads to a negligible interaction resulting in high spin polarization in the transmitted electron beam. The overall effect is that the free electron flux component with a magnetic moment in an opposite direction to the magnetic moment of the helical states can pass through the dsDNA monolayer without absorption, while the other spin component is highly absorbed by dsDNA. This is consistent with the finding that a monolayer of single-stranded DNA does not exhibit similar spin filtering properties.     

Conductance of a large point contact with Rashba effect

We study the scattering of an electron of a 2DEG through a large point contact separating a region where the electrons are free and a region where the Rashba spin-orbit coupling is present. The scattering depends dramatically on the electron incidence angle showing double refraction within the Rashba region. For incidence not normal to the interface the electron spin state is not conserved. The calculated conductance exhibits an oscillating behavior as a function of spin state of the incident electrons with different spin down and spin up currents. Our model describes both a ferromagnetic semimetallic source and a simple metallic injection electrode. In the first case the electrons are injected in a pure spin state and in the second one they are unpolarized, that is in a statistical mixture of spin up and down states. In both the cases the passage through the large point contact produces spin polarized currents.Received: 30 July 2003, Published online: 23 December 2003PACS: 85.75.Hh Spin polarized field effect transistors - 72.25.-b Spin polarized transport - 73.23.Ad Ballistic transport     

Nanojunctions as logic operators for the spintronics

We propose two all-electrical nanodevices where the spin properties of an incoming electron are modified by the spin-orbit interaction (SOI), resulting in a transformation of the qubit state carried by the spin. Our proposal is essentially based on nanojunctions made of crossing quantum wires patterned in a two dimensional electron gas where the Rashba SOI is present. We investigate in detail the spin precession of one electron traveling in the proposed nanodevices. The nanojunctions acts as spin filters or ballistic spin rotators whose properties can be varied by tuning the strength of the SOI, by changing the geometry of the junctions. Two different basic mechanism in order to obtain in plane or out of the plane rotations are discussed. We show that, starting from the spin rotators, a large class of unitary transformations can be attained with one or more nanojunctions in series. By choosing appropriate parameters the spin transformations can be made unitary, which corresponds to lossless operators.     

Spin Polarization and Spin‐Flip Through Phosphorene Superlattice

The spin‐dependent transport properties, including spin polarization and spin‐flip for phosphorene superlattice in the presence of an extrinsic Rashba spin‐orbit interaction (RSOI) based on the transfer matrix method, are studied. The results show that the number of barriers in the superlattice structure plays a dominant role in output spin polarization, which can be used in designing optimized spintronic devices. In addition, by controlling on the Rashba strength, an incident spin‐up electron can be transmitted as a spin‐down electron. Also, it enables to convert the unpolarized incident electronic beam (with zero spin polarization) into an arbitrary output spin polarization, which plays a significant role in qubit circuits.     

Optically controlled initialization and read-out of an electron spin bound to a fluorine donor in ZnSe

Here we report photon antibunching and magneto-spectroscopy of a single electron spin bound to a fluorine donor in a ZnMgSe/ZnSe QW nanostructure. The results confirm the presence of an optically controllable lambda-system which allows the optical manipulation of the electron bound to the neutral fluorine donor as a spin qubit. Moreover, we achieved optical spin pumping of the qubit by resonant excitation of each of the four allowed transitions of the lambda system. We verified the spin transfer by detecting single photons when the bound electron decays into the opposite spin state. The results presented here constitutes an elegant initialization and the read-out procedure of the electron spin qubit bound to a fluorine donor which are prerequisite for coherent optical control of an impurity based solid-state spin qubit.     

Spin response in nonlocal nonlinear optics

A novel effect of the electron spin in nonlinear optics is predicted. Starting from the Pauli Hamiltonian, we present the influence of the electron spin on the nonlinear optical response of a homogeneous electron gas in the low temperature limit. It is shown that the longitudinal second-harmonic response which results from a transverse incoming field differs significantly from the usual paramagnetic response when spin effects are included. The calculation is done both with and without screening.