Single-shot readout of electron spins in a semiconductor quantum dot

We report on a method for single-shot readout of spin states in a semiconductor quantum dot that is robust against charge noise and can be used even when the electron temperature exceeds the energy splitting between the states. The spin states are first correlated to different charge states using a spin dependence of the tunnel rates. A subsequent fast measurement of the charge on the dot then reveals the original spin state. The method is analyzed theoretically, and compared to a previously used method. We experimentally demonstrate the method by performing readout of the two-electron spin states, achieving a single-shot visibility of more than 80%. We find very long triplet-to-singlet relaxation times (up to several milliseconds), with a strong dependence on in-plane magnetic field.     

Electron spins in an array of tunnel-coupled quantum dots

Mechanisms of electron spin relaxation in semiconductor arrays with tunnel-coupled quantum dots are reviewed. The contribution for anisotropic exchange interaction is shown for asymmetrical quantum dots having no inversion axis relative to their plane. The configuration of vertically coupled double Ge/Si quantum dots is found where anisotropic exchange coupling does not contribute to spin decoherence. It could be a basic configuration of spin-based quantum computation schemes.     

On the possibility of the dynamic self-polarization of nuclear spins in a quantum dot

The possibility of self-polarization of nuclear spins predicted by M.I. D’yakonov and V.I. Perel’ (JETP Lett. 16, 398 (1972)) has been investigated in the case of the electric current passing through a single quantum dot. The mechanisms of nuclear spin relaxation in the quantum dot leading to the polarization and depolarization of the nuclei are discussed. To make the nuclear polarization possible, it has been proposed to increase the nuclear polarization rate via the interaction of an electron localized in the quantum dot with electromagnetic oscillations in an electric circuit, whose proper frequency is tuned to a resonance with the Zeeman splitting of an electron level in the quantum dot.     

Photoconduction in tunnel-coupled Ge/Si quantum dot arrays

The photoconduction in a tunnel-coupled Ge/Si quantum dot (QD) array has been studied. The photoconductance (PC) sign can be either positive or negative, depending on the initial filling of QDs with holes. The PC kinetics has a long-term character (10²?10⁴ s at T = 4.2 K) and is accompanied by persistent photoconduction (PPC), whereby the PC value is not restored on the initial level even after relaxation for several hours. These phenomena are observed upon illumination by light with photon energies both greater and smaller than the silicon bandgap. A threshold light wavelength corresponding to a long-term PC kinetics depends on the QD filling with holes. A model describing the observed PC kinetics is proposed, according to which the main contribution to the PC is related to the degree of QD filling with holes. By applying the proposed model to the analysis of PC kinetics at various excitation levels, it is possible to determine the dependence of the hopping conductance on the number of holes per QD. The rate of the charge carrier density relaxation exponentially depends on the carrier density.     

Distributed quantum information processing via quantum dot spins

We propose a scheme to engineer a non-local two-qubit phase gate between two remote quantum-dot spins. Along with one-qubit local operations, one can in principal perform various types of distributed quantum information processing. The scheme employs a photon with linearly polarisation interacting one after the other with two remote quantum-dot spins in cavities. Due to the optical spin selection rule, the photon obtains a Faraday rotation after the interaction process. By measuring the polarisation of the final output photon, a non-local two-qubit phase gate between the two remote quantum-dot spins is constituted. Our scheme may has very important applications in the distributed quantum information processing.     

Universal quantum gates between distant quantum dot spins

We propose a scheme to engineer a nonlocal two-qubit phase gate between two remote quantum-dot spins in cavities. As the effect of cavity decay is considered and strong coupling condition is not used, the scheme has good adaptability. Along with single qubit operations, one can perform in principle various types of distributed quantum information processing.     

Complete entanglement analysis on electron spins using quantum dot and microcavity coupled system

We present an entanglement analysis protocol on entangled electron spins using quantum dot (QD) and microcavity coupled system. Each quantum dot is placed in the microcavity and ancilla photon input-output process could be used to check the parity of the quantum dots. After the parity check process, the user only needs to measure the spin direction of the QD spin, and the state information can be readout completely. The feasibility of our scheme and the experimental challenge are discussed by considering currently available techniques.     

Dynamics of spins in a quantum dot in the presence of a stationary current

We investigate the dynamics of spins of a quantum dot coupled to two leads by considering the transport process of electrons in the Coulomb blockade regime. A magnetic field with a constant and an oscillating components perpendicular to each other is applied. With the nonequilibrium-Green-function technique, we calculate the stationary current and show that a spin satellite peak appears apart from the resonance peak. This satellite peak is the result of the spin flip inside the dot caused by the oscillating component of the field. It is shown that the heights of the two peaks are influenced mutually. The curve of the current versus the frequency of the oscillating field exhibits an asymmetric line shape.     

Dynamics of quantum dot nuclear spin polarization controlled by a single electron

We present measurements of the buildup and decay of nuclear spin polarization in a single semiconductor quantum dot. Our experiment shows that we polarize the nuclei in a few milliseconds, while their decay dynamics depends drastically on external parameters. We show that a single electron can very efficiently depolarize nuclear spins in milliseconds whereas in the absence of the electron the nuclear spin lifetime is on the scale of seconds. This lifetime is further enhanced by 1-2 orders of magnitude by quenching the nonsecular nuclear dipole-dipole interactions with a magnetic field of 1 mT.     

电声子相互作用对量子点分子中单电子隧穿的影响

研究了双量子点系统中的电子隧穿动力学过程，在考虑电子与声子相互作用的情况下用基于 正则变换的微扰方法解析地得到了电子动态隧穿电流的表达式. 并且详细分析电子与声子耦 合引起的退相干问题，在此基础上指出了可能的退耦机理. 关键词： 电声子相互作用 双量子点 隧穿     

Electron-interface-optical-phonon interaction in rectangular quantum wire and quantum dot

Under the dielectric continuum model and separation of variables, the interface optical (IO) phonon modes and electron-optical-phonon interaction in rectangular quantum wire and quantum dot embedded in a nonpolar matrix are studied. We found that there exist various types of IO phonon modes in rectangular nanostructures. The IO phonon modes in rectangular quantum wire include IO-propagating (IO-PR) and IO-IO hybrid phonon modes, while the IO phonon modes in rectangular quantum dot contain IO-IO-PR and IO-PR-PR hybrid phonon modes. The results of numerical calculation show that these hybrid phonon modes contain corner optical (CO) phonon modes and edge optical (EO) phonon modes. The potential applications of these results are also discussed.     

Control of electron correlations in a spherical quantum dot

Spherical quantum dots containing several electrons are considered for different values of the total spin. Numerical calculations are carried out using the quantum path-integral Monte Carlo method. The dependence of the electron correlations on the dimensionless control quantum parameter q associated with the steepness of the confinement potential is studied. The quantum transition from a Wigner crystal-like state (i.e., from the regime of strongly correlated electrons) to a Fermi-liquid state (“cold” melting) driven by the parameter q is studied in detail. The behavior of the radial and pair correlation functions, which characterize quantum delocalization of the electrons, is considered.     

Long-lived quantum memory with nuclear atomic spins

We propose to store nonclassical states of light into the macroscopic collective nuclear spin (10(18) atoms) of a 3He vapor, using metastability exchange collisions. These collisions, commonly used to transfer orientation from the metastable state 2 3S1 to the ground state of 3He, can also transfer quantum correlations. This gives a possible experimental scheme to map a squeezed vacuum field state onto a nuclear spin state with very long storage times (hours).     

Indirect interaction of nuclear spins in chiral magnets

The effective Hamiltonian of the Suhl-Nakamura interaction of nuclear spins in a helimagnet has been constructed for the case where an external magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the axis of the helicoid. The contribution from the intraboundary and intradomain spin excitations to the parameter and effective radius of this interaction has been calculated. The second moment and local broadening of the NMR absorption line, which are determined by the indirect interaction of the nuclear spins, have also been calculated.     

Electron-phonon interaction in hemispherical quantum dot

Within the framework of the dielectric continuum (DC) model, the optical phonon modes and electron-optical-phonon interaction in hemispherical quantum dot are investigated. The proper eigenfunctions for longitudinal optical (LO) and interface optical (IO) phonon modes are constructed. After having quantized the eigenmodes, we derive the Hamiltonian operators describing the LO and IO phonon modes as well as the corresponding Fröhlich electron-phonon interaction. The dispersion relation of IO phonon modes is size independent. The potential applications of these results are also discussed.     

Shot noise in a quantum dot with the coulomb interaction

We study the noise in a quantum dot which is coupled to metallic leads by using the non-equation of motion technique at the Kondo temperature T_K. We compute the out of equilibrium density of states, the current and the shot noise. We find that the shot noise exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on the voltage when variation of ε_d values of the QD energy in the absence of the external magnetic field occurs. We also find that the amplitude of current exhibits a saturation behavior when driving field is increased.     

All-optical manipulation of electron spins in carbon-nanotube quantum dots

We demonstrate theoretically that it is possible to manipulate electron or hole spins all optically in semiconducting carbon nanotubes. The scheme that we propose is based on the spin-orbit interaction that was recently measured experimentally; we show that this interaction, together with an external magnetic field, can be used to achieve optical electron-spin state preparation with a fidelity exceeding 99%. Our results also imply that it is possible to implement coherent spin rotation and measurement using laser fields linearly polarized along the nanotube axis, as well as to convert spin qubits into time-bin photonic qubits. We expect that our findings will open up new avenues for exploring spin physics in one-dimensional systems.     

Coherent electron transport in a Si quantum dot dimer

We show that the coherence of charge transfer through a weakly coupled double-dot dimer can be determined by analyzing the statistics of the conductance pattern, and does not require a large phase coherence length in the host material. We present an experimental study of the charge transport through a small Si nanostructure, which contains two quantum dots. The transport through the dimer is shown to be coherent. At the same time, one of the dots is strongly coupled to the leads, and the overall transport is dominated by inelastic cotunneling processes.     

Quantum light memory using quantum dot spins in a microdisk cavity via Raman process

A solid state quantum circuit where an ensemble of self-assembled quantum dots in a microdisk cavity served as long-lived quantum light memory, is investigated. It is shown that via laser coupling Raman process, the coherent transfer between the light field (qubits) and the ensemble spin states of the quantum dots can be efficient and fast. The coherence properties of the system are analyzed, which enables us to obtain a long coherence time.     

Dynamic nuclear polarization with single electron spins

We polarize nuclear spins in a GaAs double quantum dot by controlling two-electron spin states near the anticrossing of the singlet (S) and m(S)= +1 triplet (T+) using pulsed gates. An initialized S state is cyclically brought into resonance with the T+ state, where hyperfine fields drive rapid rotations between S and T+, "flipping" an electron spin and "flopping" a nuclear spin. The resulting Overhauser field approaches 80 mT, in agreement with a simple rate-equation model. A self-limiting pulse sequence is developed that allows the steady-state nuclear polarization to be set using a gate voltage.