Tunneling conductance of a two-dimensional electron gas with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

We theoretically studied the spin-dependent charge transport in a two-dimensional electron gas with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (DSOC) and metal junctions. It is shown that the DSOC energy can be directly measured from the tunneling conductance spectrum. We found that spin polarization of the conductance in the propagation direction can be obtained by injecting from the DSOC system. We also considered the effect of the interfacial scattering barrier (both spin-flip and non-spin-flip scattering) on the overall conductance and the spin polarization of the conductance. It is found that the increase of spin-flip scattering can enhance the conductance under certain conditions. Moreover, both types of scattering can increase the spin polarization below the branches crossing of the energy band.     

NMR probing of spin excitations in the ring structure of a two-subband system

Resistively detected nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is observed inside the ringlike structure, with a quantized Hall conductance of 6e(2)/h, in the phase diagram of a two-subband electron system. The NMR signal persists up to 470 mK and is absent in other states with the same quantized Hall conductance. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time T1, is found to decrease rapidly towards the ring center. A strong dynamic nuclear polarization by the biasing current has also been observed only inside the ring. These observations are consistent with the assertion of the ringlike region being a ferromagnetic state that is accompanied by collective spin excitations.     

半导体超晶格系统中的磁电调控电子自旋输运研究

通过采用转移矩阵方法求解自旋电子隧穿过程,理论研究了半导体超晶格系统中电子自旋输运的磁电调控行为.结果表明：仅对超晶格系统施以磁调制,隧穿系数将出现自旋分裂,随磁场增强,电导自旋极化率变大且展宽于费米能区;若选取不变磁场情况,同时施以间隔周期电场调制,超晶格的电子极化率将有更为显著地提高.进一步发现,随电场强度的改变,电子自旋输运行为显然存在两个明显不同区域,下自旋电子将在不同调制区域表现为不同的变化趋势.然而,若对周期磁超晶格施加间隔两周期的电调制,自旋电导输运的临界行为消失,电导极化率在高能区的共振峰 关键词： 半导体超晶格 自旋输运 磁电调控     

Role of spin noise in the detection of nanoscale ensembles of nuclear spins

When probing nuclear spins in materials on the nanometer scale, random fluctuations of the spin polarization will exceed the mean Boltzmann polarization for sample volumes below about (100 nm){3}. In this Letter, we use magnetic resonance force microscopy to observe nuclear spin fluctuations in real time. We show how reproducible measurements of the polarization variance can be obtained by controlling the spin correlation time and rapidly sampling a large number of independent spin configurations. This allows significant improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio for nanometer-scale magnetic resonance imaging.     

Nuclear spin diffusion effects in optically pumped quantum wells

We studied the influence of the nuclear spin diffusion on the dynamical nuclear polarization of low dimensional nanostructures subject to optical pumping. Our analysis shows that the induced nuclear spin polarization in semiconductor nanostructures will develop both a time and position dependence due to a nonuniform hyperfine interaction as a result of the geometrical confinement provided by the system. In particular, for the case of semiconductor quantum wells, nuclear spin diffusion is responsible for a nonzero nuclear spin polarization in the quantum well barriers. As an example we considered a 57 Å GaAs square quantum well and a 1000 Å Al _x Ga_1?x As parabolic quantum well both within 500 Å Al_0.4Ga_0.6As barriers. We found that the average nuclear spin polarization in the quantum well barriers depends on the strength of the geometrical confinement provided by the structure and is characterized by a saturation time of the order of few hundred seconds. Depending on the value of the nuclear spin diffusion constant, the average nuclear spin polarization in the quantum well barriers can get as high as 70% for the square quantum well and 40% for the parabolic quantum well. These results should be relevant for both time resolved Faraday rotation and optical nuclear magnetic resonance experimental techniques.     

Nonequilibrium nuclear-electron spin dynamics in semiconductor quantum dots

We study the spin dynamics in charged quantum dots in the situation where the resident electron is coupled to only about 200 nuclear spins and where the electron spin splitting induced by the Overhauser field does not exceed markedly the spectral broadening. The formation of a dynamical nuclear polarization as well as its subsequent decay by the dipole-dipole interaction is directly resolved in time. Because not limited by intrinsic nonlinearities, almost complete nuclear polarization is achieved, even at elevated temperatures. The data suggest a nonequilibrium mode of nuclear polarization, distinctly different from the spin temperature concept exploited on bulk semiconductors.     

Resonant-Optical Detection of Nuclear Magnetization in the Si/CaF<Subscript>2</Subscript> Nanostructure

We have considered theoretically the characteristic features of optical detection of nuclear magnetization in the Si/CaF₂ structure under the conditions of EPR and NMR by measuring luminescence polarization. We show that application of EPR makes it possible to detect weak nuclear fields, but the time of spin relaxation of electrons imposes its constraint. The application of NMR is limited by nuclear fields of no less than 15–20 Gs. The possibility of using optical NMR for direct measurement of the nuclear field from changes in the luminescence polarization spectrum is shown. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 72, No. 5, pp. 644–649, September–October, 2005.     

Charge transport through ferromagnet/two-dimensional electron gas/d-wave superconductor junctions with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Along the lines of Blonder, Tinkham and Klapwijk, we investigate the charge transport through ferromagnet/two-dimensional electronic gas/d-wave superconductor (F/2DEG/S) junctions in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and focus our attention on the interplay between spin polarization and spin precession. At zero spin polarization, the spin-mixing scattering resulted from Rashba SO coupling decreases the zero-bias conductance peak. Under spin polarization, spin precession introduces novel Andreev reflection, which competes with the effect of spin-mixing scattering. If the F layer is a half metal, the later effect is overwhelmed by that of novel Andreev reflection. As a result, the zero-bias conductance dip caused by spin polarization is enhanced, and at strong Rashba SO coupling, a split zero-bias peak is found in the gap. In an intermediate region where the two effects are comparable with each other, the zero-bias conductance shows a reentrant behavior as a function of Rashba SO coupling.     

Persistent narrowing of nuclear-spin fluctuations in InAs quantum dots using laser excitation

We demonstrate the suppression of nuclear-spin fluctuations in an InAs quantum dot and measure the timescales of the spin narrowing effect. By initializing for tens of milliseconds with two continuous wave diode lasers, fluctuations of the nuclear spins are suppressed via the hole-assisted dynamic nuclear polarization feedback mechanism. The fluctuation narrowed state persists in the dark (absent light illumination) for well over 1 s even in the presence of a varying electron charge and spin polarization. Enhancement of the electron spin coherence time (T2*) is directly measured using coherent dark state spectroscopy. By separating the calming of the nuclear spins in time from the spin qubit operations, this method is much simpler than the spin echo coherence recovery or dynamic decoupling schemes.     

Optical nuclear spin polarization in quantum dots

Hyperfine interaction between electron spin and randomly oriented nuclear spins is a key issue of electron coherence for quantum information/computation. We propose an efficient way to establish high polarization of nuclear spins and reduce the intrinsic nuclear spin fluctuations. Here, we polarize the nuclear spins in semiconductor quantum dot(QD) by the coherent population trapping(CPT) and the electric dipole spin resonance(EDSR) induced by optical fields and ac electric fields. By tuning the optical fields, we can obtain a powerful cooling background based on CPT for nuclear spin polarization. The EDSR can enhance the spin flip–flop rate which may increase the cooling efficiency. With the help of CPT and EDSR, an enhancement of 1300 times of the electron coherence time can be obtained after a 10-ns preparation time.     

Polarization of atomic transitions in ionized14N after ion beam surface interaction at grazing incidence

The circular polarization of atomic transitions after the interaction of fast nitrogen ions with a solid surface at grazing incidence is investigated at energies for the incident ions from 0.4 up to 15 MeV. Large degrees of circular polarization in the visible part of the spectrum are found so that the application of this technique for producing nuclear spin polarized ions is feasible.     

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.     

Effect of the nuclear hyperfine field on the 2D electron conductivity in the quantum Hall regime

The effect of the nuclear hyperfine interaction on the dc conductivity of 2D electrons under quantum Hall effect conditions at filling factor ν=1 is observed for the first time. The local hyperfine field enhanced by dynamic nuclear polarization is monitored via the Overhauser shift of the 2D conduction electron spin resonance in AlGaAs/GaAs multiquantum-well samples. The experimentally observed change in the dc conductivity resulting from dynamic nuclear polarization is in agreement with a thermal activation model incorporating the Zeeman energy change due to the hyperfine interaction. The relaxation decay time of the dc conductivity is, within experimental error, the same as the relaxation time of the nuclear spin polarization determined from the Overhauser shift. These findings unequivocally establish the nuclear spin origins of the observed conductivity change. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 1, 58–63 (10 January 1999) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Polarization and readout of coupled single spins in diamond

We study the coupling of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond to a nearby single nitrogen defect at room temperature. The magnetic dipolar coupling leads to a splitting in the electron spin resonance frequency of the nitrogen-vacancy center, allowing readout of the state of a single nitrogen electron spin. At magnetic fields where the spin splitting of the two centers is the same, we observe a strong polarization of the nitrogen electron spin. The amount of polarization can be controlled by the optical excitation power. We combine the polarization and the readout in time-resolved pump-probe measurements to determine the spin relaxation time of a single nitrogen electron spin. Finally, we discuss indications for hyperfine-induced polarization of the nitrogen nuclear spin.     

Controlling the interaction of electron and nuclear spins in a tunnel-coupled quantum dot

We present a technique for manipulating the nuclear spins and the emission polarization from a single optically active quantum dot. When the quantum dot is tunnel coupled to a Fermi sea, we have discovered a natural cycle in which an electron spin is repeatedly created with resonant optical excitation. The spontaneous emission polarization and the nuclear spin polarization exhibit a bistability. For a σ(+) pump, the emission switches from σ(+) to σ(-) at a particular detuning of the laser. Simultaneously, the nuclear spin polarization switches from positive to negative. Away from the bistability, the nuclear spin polarization can be changed continuously from negative to positive, allowing precise control via the laser wavelength.     

自旋极化有机电致发光器件中单线态与三线态激子的形成及调控

由于有机半导体（OSC）材料自旋弛豫时间长、自旋扩散长度大,OSC自旋器件逐渐成为研究热点.对于有机电致发光器件（OLED）,通过自旋极化电极调控单线态和三线态激子比率是提高其效率的有效方法.本文从漂移扩散方程和载流子浓度连续性方程出发,结合朗之万定律建立了一个自旋注入、输运、复合的理论模型.计算了OSC中的极化电子、空穴浓度,得出了单线态和三线态激子的比率.分析了电场强度、自旋相关界面电导、电极和OSC电导率匹配和电极极化率等因素的影响.计算结果表明：两电极注入反向极化的载流子并提高载流子自旋极化率,有     

Investigation of ultrafast nuclear spin polarization induced by short laser pulses

We theoretically investigate the dynamics of nuclear spin induced by short laser pulses and show that ultrafast nuclear spin polarization can take place. Combined use of the hyperfine interaction together with the static electric field is the key for that. Specifically we apply the idea to unstable isotopes, (27)Mg and (37)Ca, with nuclear spin of 1/2 and 3/2, respectively, and show that 88% and 62% of nuclear spin polarization can be achieved within a few to tens of ns, which is 2-3 orders of magnitude shorter than the time needed for any known optical methods. Because of its ultrafast nature, our scheme would be very effective not only for stable nuclei but also unstable nuclei with a lifetime as short as mus.     

Spin-Polarized Transport Through a Quantum Dot Coupled to Ferromagnetic Leads:Kondo Correlation Effect

We investigate the linear and nonlinear transport through a single level quantum dot connected to two ferromagnetic leads in Kondo regime, using the slave-boson mean-field approach for finite on-site Coulomb repulsion. We find that for antiparallel alignment of the spin orientations in the leads, a single zero-bias Kondo peak always appears in the voltage-dependent differential conductance with peak height going down to zero as the polarization grows to P=1. For parallel configuration, with increasing polarization from zero, the Kondo peak descends and greatly widens with the appearance of shoulders, and finally splits into two peaks on both sides of the bias voltage around P～0.7 until disappearing at even larger polarization strength. At any spin orientation angle θ, the linear conductance generally drops with growing polarization strength. For a given finite polarization, the minimum linear conductance always appears at θ=π.     

Majorana–Kondo interplay in a Majorana wire-quantum dot system with ferromagnetic contacts*

We consider a single-level quantum dot(QD)and a topological superconducting wire hosting Majorana bound states at its ends.By the equation of motion method,we give the analytical Green’s function of the QD in the noninteracting and the infinite interacting case.We study the effects of QD energy level and the spin polarization on the density of states(DOS)and linear conductance of the system.In the noninteracting case,the DOS resonance shifts with the change of energy level and it shows bimodal structure at large spin polarization strength.In the infinite interacting case,the up-spin linear conductance first increases and then decreases with the increase of spin polarization strength,but the down-spin is stable.However,the DOS shows a splitting phenomenon in the large energy level with the increase of spin polarization strength.This provides an interesting way to explore the physical properties of such spin dependent effect in the hybrid Majorana QD systems.     

Electron paramagnetic resonance study of the nuclear spin dynamics in an AlAs quantum well

The nuclear spin dynamics in an asymmetrically doped 16-nm AlAs quantum well grown along the [001] direction has been studied experimentally using the time decay of the Overhauser shift of paramagnetic resonance of conduction electrons. The nonzero spin polarization of nuclei causing the initial observed Overhauser shift is due the relaxation of the nonequilibrium spin polarization of electrons into the nuclear subsystem near electron paramagnetic resonance owing to the hyperfine interaction. The measured relaxation time of nuclear spins near the unity filling factor is (530 ± 30) min at the temperature T = 0.5 K. This value exceeds the characteristic spin relaxation times of nuclei in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures by more than an order of magnitude. This fact indicates the decrease in the strength of the hyperfine interaction in the AlAs quantum well in comparison with GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures.