Intrinsic spin Hall effect in silicene: transition from spin Hall to normal insulator

An intrinsic contribution to the spin Hall effect in two‐dimensional silicene is considered theoretically within the linear response theory and Green's function formalism. When an external voltage normal to the silicene plane is applied, the spin Hall conductivity is shown to reveal a transition from the spin Hall insulator phase at low bias to the conventional insulator phase at higher voltages. This transition resembles the recently reported phase transition in bilayer graphene. The spin–orbit interaction responsible for this transition in silicene is much stronger than in graphene, which should make the transition observable experimentally. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dynamic nuclear spin resonance in n-GaAs

The dynamics of optically detected nuclear magnetic resonance is studied in n-GaAs via time-resolved Kerr rotation using an on-chip microcoil for rf field generation. Both optically allowed and optically forbidden NMR are observed with a dynamics controlled by the interplay between dynamic nuclear polarization via hyperfine interaction with optically generated spin-polarized electrons and nuclear spin depolarization due to magnetic resonance absorption. Comparing the characteristic nuclear spin relaxation rate obtained in experiment with master equation simulations, the underlying nuclear spin depolarization mechanism for each resonance is extracted.     

Coherence of an optically illuminated single nuclear spin qubit

We investigate the coherence properties of individual nuclear spin quantum bits in diamond [Dutt, Science 316, 1312 (2007)10.1126/science.1139831] when a proximal electronic spin associated with a nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) center is being interrogated by optical radiation. The resulting nuclear spin dynamics are governed by time-dependent hyperfine interaction associated with rapid electronic transitions, which can be described by a spin-fluctuator model. We show that due to a process analogous to motional averaging in nuclear magnetic resonance, the nuclear spin coherence can be preserved after a large number of optical excitation cycles. Our theoretical analysis is in good agreement with experimental results. It indicates a novel approach that could potentially isolate the nuclear spin system completely from the electronic environment.     

The thermodynamic one-particle Green function in the renormalized spin wave approximation for isotropic cubic ferromagnets

The thermodynamic one-particle Green function in the renormalized spin wave approximation for isotropic cubic ferromagnetic insulators with Dyson's spin wave theory as a base is derived. In quantitative respect, dynamic and kinematic effects of spin waves are approximated by the graphs deficient in the energy denominators, wherefore at low temperature kinematic interaction turns out to be too strong. As against the one-particle Green function for independent spin waves, dynamic interaction of ferromagnons is shown to effect the renormalization of the spin wave energy, whereas kinematic interaction directly modifies the average ferromagnon population numbers. In the matter of magnetization, its formula based on the Green function assumes a similar form as in the spin wave theory without interactions on the understanding that it remains valid within the entire range of temperatures from absolute zero up to the critical point.     

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.     

Quantum readout and fast initialization of nuclear spin qubits with electric currents

Nuclear spin qubits have the longest coherence times in the solid state, but their quantum readout and initialization is a great challenge. We present a theory for the interaction of an electric current with the nuclear spins of donor impurities in semiconductors. The theory yields a sensitivity criterion for quantum detection of nuclear spin states using electrically detected magnetic resonance, as well as an all-electrical method for fast nuclear spin qubit initialization.     

Longitudinal muon spin relaxation in muonium-like systems

Nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in paramagnetic systems is treated using the classic expression for transition probability between the coupled electron and nuclear spin states. The rate equations governing the incoherent occupancies of these states are solved analytically (where possible) and numerically (where not) to construct the relaxation function for the nuclear spin. The method is illustrated for muonium, and the muonium-substituted molecular radicals, for the case of perturbation due to fluctuation of the local field,i.e. modulation of the interaction with a third spin. A slight departure from single exponential behaviour is demonstrated for slow fluctuations.     

The theory of nuclear spin diffusion due to paramagnetic impurities in a diamagnetic crystal

The diffusion of nuclear magnetization inside a diffusion barrier, due to modulation of the fluctuation spin operator of a magnetic ion by the interaction between nuclei, is treated to third order of perturbation theory. Cross-relaxation transitions of two types are being modulated. These are the transitions in which a pair of nuclei is mutually reoriented either due to a dipole-dipole interaction between them or by the coupling of each nucleus to the electron spin. The relative effectiveness of these processes depends on the experimental conditions.Translated from Izvestiya Vysskikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 76–80, November, 1975.The author is grateful to B. I. Kochelaev for discussing the results of this work.     

Spectrum of an electron spin coupled to an unpolarized bath of nuclear spins

The main source of decoherence for an electron spin confined to a quantum dot is the hyperfine interaction with nuclear spins. To analyze this process theoretically we diagonalize the central spin Hamiltonian in the high magnetic B-field limit. Then we project the eigenstates onto an unpolarized state of the nuclear bath and find that the resulting density of states has Gaussian tails. The level spacing of the nuclear sublevels is exponentially small in the middle of each of the two electron Zeeman levels but increases superexponentially away from the center. This suggests to select states from the wings of the distribution when the system is projected on a single eigenstate by a measurement to reduce the noise of the nuclear spin bath. This theory is valid when the external magnetic field is larger than a typical Overhauser field at high nuclear spin temperature.     

Nuclear effective interactions and spin excitations

In view of the one-boson-exchange model for the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the Hartree-Fock (HF) interaction, we formulate the effective interactions for particle-hole states in terms of the exchange of the fields which are confined in the nucleus. This theory, as an extension to the nuclear field theory (NFT), takes into account the propagation of the fields which is neglected in NFT. The effective interactions thus obtained reproduce the energies of a sequence of electric giant resonances and the core polarizabilities associated with the resonances. It is found that the coupling constants of the σ- and ω-fields are suppressed for the particle-hole interaction by 60% with respect to the HF interaction. As for the effective interactions involving nucleon spins, we consider the fields coupled to nucleon spins. The effective interactions obtained, essentially different from those in NFT, have a tensor component. We analyse the energies and cross sections for excitation of stretched spin particle-hole states which are the most sensitive to the tensor force. The effective interaction responsible for the stretched spin states is shown to be consistent with that for the magnetic resonances observed in the (p, n) reactions.     

Nuclear spin relaxation in free radicals as revealed in a stimulated electron spin echo experiment

Electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) in a three-pulse stimulated echo experiment, when the time interval between the first and second pulses τ is varied, is attributed to a spontaneous change of the electron spin Larmor frequency in the time intervalT between the second and third pulses, due to the longitudinal relaxation of nearby nuclei. It is observed for nitroxide radicals in glassy matrices in the temperature range of 130–240 K. Nuclear relaxation is assumed to arise from fluctuation of the proton hyperfine interaction, due to fast rotation of the methyl groups. This contribution to ESEEM and the conventional one that is induced by the simultaneous excitation of allowed and forbidden electron spin transitions were found to be multiplicative. As the latter does not depend on the timeT, both contributions can be easily separated. The rate of nuclear spin relaxation was determined, and correlation time of methyl group rotation was estimated by Redfield theory of spin relaxation. Arrhenius parameters of this motion were estimated on the basis of these data and those at 77 and 90 K, where the previously developed approach was used (L.V. Kulik, I.A. Grigor’ev, E.S. Salnikov, S.A. Dzuba, Yu.D. Tsvetkov, J. Phys. Chem. A 106, 12066–12071, 2003).     

Stabilization of the electron-nuclear spin orientation in quantum dots by the nuclear quadrupole interaction

The nuclear quadrupole interaction eliminates the restrictions imposed by hyperfine interaction on the spin coherence of an electron and nuclei in a quantum dot. The strain-induced nuclear quadrupole interaction suppresses the nuclear spin flip and makes possible the zero-field dynamic nuclear polarization in self-organized InP/InGaP quantum dots. The direction of the effective nuclear magnetic field is fixed in space, thus quenching the magnetic depolarization of the electron spin in the quantum dot. The quadrupole interaction suppresses the zero-field electron spin decoherence also for the case of nonpolarized nuclei. These results provide a new vision of the role of the nuclear quadrupole interaction in nanostructures: it elongates the spin memory of the electron-nuclear system.     

Effect of kinematic interaction in the renormalized spin wave theory for isotropic ferromagnet

The procedure of calculating within the frame-work of renormalized spin wave approximation the contribution from kinematic interaction of ferromagnons to the partition function and magnetization of the isotropic cubic ferromagnet is established. The investigation seen here through extends Dysons's spin wave approach to higher temperatures up to the critical point. In contradistinction to the graphs due to dynamic interaction of spin waves which effect the renormalization of the energy of non-interacting ferromagnons, the diagrams resulting from kinematic interaction are shown to correct the average spin wave population numbers only. That correction proves to be a solution of an integral equation and its quantity depends both on the temperature and the atomic spin quantum numberS, and it tends to zero with increasingS.     

Nuclear spin species,spin statistical weights and rovibronic tunnelling splittings of non-rigid water hexamer

Powerful multinomial generating functions together with the character table of the six-dimensional hyperoctahedral wreath product group S₆[S₂] of the non-rigid water hexamer are employed to obtain the nuclear spin species, nuclear spin multiplets and the total nuclear spin statistical weights of the rovibronic-tunnelling levels for both deuterated and regular forms. The methods are composed of algebraic generating functions involving 531,441 nuclear spin functions for (D₂O)₆ in a group of 46,080 operations and 65 irreducible representations of the S₆[S₂] group. Although the deuterated form of the non-rigid water hexamer possesses nuclear spin populations in 58 of the 65 possible symmetries of tunnelling levels, for the regular water hexamer only 23 of the 65 symmetries are populated with nuclear spin functions. The tunnelling splitting correlations of rovibronic levels of the water hexamer have been obtained from the Saykally's semi-rigid (G₄) model to the fully non-rigid limit (G₄₆₀₈₀). The computed nuclear spin statistical weights for protonated form of (H₂O)₆ call for a reinterpretation of the previous assignment of the observed spectra. The results can also be applied to enumerate the hyperfine patterns using the nuclear spin multiplets and intensities in semi-rigid to fully non-rigid limits.     

The nondissipative spin Hall current in a nonuniform Rashba effect system

The spin Hall current in a two-dimensional electron system with nonuniform Rashba spin–orbit interaction (SOI) is investigated by means of the lattice Green's function method. Large electric and spin Hall currents are produced by this nonuniform Rashba SOI, while the electric Hall current vanishes in the uniform Rashba SOI system. A nondissipative spin Hall current is also produced, without any longitudinal voltage bias, any external magnetic field and any special class of band insulators.     

Helical nuclear spin order in a strip of stripes in the quantum Hall regime

We investigate nuclear spin effects in a two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum Hall regime modeled by a weakly coupled array of interacting quantum wires. We show that the presence of hyperfine interaction between electron and nuclear spins in such wires can induce a phase transition, ordering electrons and nuclear spins into a helix in each wire. Electron-electron interaction effects, pronounced within the one-dimensional stripes, boost the transition temperature up to tens to hundreds of millikelvins in GaAs. We predict specific experimental signatures of the existence of nuclear spin order, for instance for the resistivity of the system at transitions between different quantum Hall plateaus.     

Nuclear spin dynamics of nuclear-ordered solid<Superscript>3</Superscript>He in the low field phase

Pulsed NMR was used to investigate nuclear spin dynamics of nuclear-ordered solid³He in the low field phase. The nuclear spin motion became unstable under certain conditions. Under stable conditions the spin motion can be described by the OCF equations. The tipping-angle-dependent frequency shift and multiple spin echoes were observed, which are similar to the case of superfluid³He. The onset of the instability of spin motion is attributed to the stimulated emission mechanism through the three-magnon relaxation process, which is similar to the Suhl instability in electronic magnetism. We derived the magnon life time from the analysis of the instability. During the instability, a largenegative frequency shift was observed. This negative shift is explained by the extension of Fomin-Ohmi's theory to include the state of decayed magnon and this explanation is consistent with the instability model.     

Electric field tunability of nuclear and electronic spin dynamics due to the hyperfine interaction in semiconductor nanostructures

We present formulas for the nuclear and electronic spin relaxation times due to the hyperfine interaction for nanostructed systems and show that the times depend on the square of the local density of electronic states at the nuclear position. A drastic sensitivity (orders of magnitude) of the electronic and nuclear spin coherence times to small electric fields is predicted for both uniformly distributed nuclear spins and delta-doped layers of specific nuclei. This sensitivity is robust to nuclear spin diffusion.     

Dynamics of nuclear spins appearing in transport measurements of an inter-edge spin diode in tilted magnetic fields

In a wide range of magnetic fields nonlinear transport between spin polarized edge channels is studied. The observed hysteresis of the I–V characteristic is attributed to the dynamic nuclear spin polarization due to the electronic spin-flip processes. We find extremely long nuclear spin relaxation times in the regime where the hyperfine interaction with electrons is switched off.     

Subsecond spin relaxation times in quantum dots at zero applied magnetic field due to a strong electron-nuclear interaction

A key to ultralong electron spin memory in quantum dots (QDs) at zero magnetic field is the polarization of the nuclei, such that the electron spin is stabilized along the average nuclear magnetic field. We demonstrate that spin-polarized electrons in n-doped (In,Ga)As/GaAs QDs align the nuclear field via the hyperfine interaction. A feedback onto the electrons occurs, leading to stabilization of their polarization due to formation of a nuclear spin polaron [I. A. Merkulov, Phys. Solid State 40, 930 (1998)]. Spin depolarization of both systems is consequently greatly reduced, and spin memory of the coupled electron-nuclear spin system is retained over 0.3 sec at temperature of 2 K.