We observe millisecond spin-flip relaxation times of donor-bound electrons in high-purity n-GaAs . This is three orders of magnitude larger than previously reported lifetimes in n-GaAs . Spin-flip times are measured as a function of magnetic field and exhibit a strong power-law dependence for fields greater than 4 T . This result is in qualitative agreement with previously reported theory and measurements of electrons in quantum dots.
We measure the donor-bound electron longitudinal spin-relaxation time ($T_1$) as a function of magnetic field ($B$) in three high-purity direct-bandgap semiconductors: GaAs, InP, and CdTe, observing a maximum $T_1$ of $1.4~text{ms}$, $0.4~text{ms}$ and $1.2~text{ms}$, respectively. In GaAs and InP at low magnetic field, up to $sim2~text{T}$, the spin-relaxation mechanism is strongly density and temperature dependent and is attributed to the random precession of the electron spin in hyperfine fields caused by the lattice nuclear spins. In all three semiconductors at high magnetic field, we observe a power-law dependence ${T_1 propto B^{- u}}$ with ${3lesssim u lesssim 4}$. Our theory predicts that the direct spin-phonon interaction is important in all three materials in this regime in contrast to quantum dot structures. In addition, the admixture mechanism caused by Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling combined with single-phonon processes has a comparable contribution in GaAs. We find excellent agreement between high-field theory and experiment for GaAs and CdTe with no free parameters, however a significant discrepancy exists for InP.
We report the results of an experiment investigating coherence and correlation effects in a system of coupled donors. Two donors are strongly coupled to two leads in a parallel configuration within a nano-wire field effect transistor. By applying a magnetic field we observe interference between two donor-induced Kondo channels, which depends on the Aharonov-Bohm phase picked up by electrons traversing the structure. This results in a non-monotonic conductance as a function of magnetic field and clearly demonstrates that donors can be coupled through a many-body state in a coherent manner. We present a model which shows good qualitative agreement with our data. The presented results add to the general understanding of interference effects in a donor-based correlated system which may allow to create artificial lattices that exhibit exotic many-body excitations.
By means of time-resolved optical orientation under strong optical pumping, the k-dependence of the electron spin-flip time (t_sf) in undoped GaAs is experimentally determined. t_sf monotonically decreases by more than one order of magnitude when the electron kinetic energy varies from 2 to 30 meV. At the high excitation densities and low temperatures of the reported experiments the main spin-flip mechanism of the conduction band electrons is the Bir-Aronov-Pikus. By means of Monte-Carlo simulations we evidence that phase-space filling effects result in the blocking of the spin flip, yielding an increase of t_sf with excitation density. These effects obtain values of t_sf up to 30 ns at k=0, the longest reported spin-relaxation time in undoped GaAs in the absence of a magnetic field.
We propose a method to electrically control electron spins in donor-based qubits in silicon. By taking advantage of the hyperfine coupling difference between a single-donor and a two-donor quantum dot, spin rotation can be driven by inducing an electric dipole between them and applying an alternating electric field generated by in-plane gates. These qubits can be coupled with exchange interaction controlled by top detuning gates. The qubit device can be fabricated deep in the silicon lattice with atomic precision by scanning tunneling probe technique. We have combined a large-scale full band atomistic tight-binding modeling approach with a time-dependent effective Hamiltonian description, providing a design with quantitative guidelines.
High-resolution spectral hole burning (SHB) in coherent nondegenerate differential transmission spectroscopy discloses spin-trion dynamics in an ensemble of negatively charged quantum dots. In the Voigt geometry, stimulated Raman spin coherence gives rise to Stokes and anti-Stokes sidebands on top of the trion spectral hole. The prominent feature of an extremely narrow spike at zero detuning arises from spin population pulsation dynamics. These SHB features confirm coherent electron spin dynamics in charged dots, and the linewidths reveal spin spectral diffusion processes.