Gate control of quantum dot-based electron spin–orbit qubits

We investigate theoretically the coherent spin dynamics of gate control of quantum dot-based electron spin–orbit qubits subjected to a tilted magnetic field under electric-dipole spin resonance (EDSR). Our results reveal that Rabi oscillation of qubit states can be manipulated electrically based on rapid gate control of SOC strength. The Rabi frequency is strongly dependent on the gate-induced electric field, the strength and orientation of the applied magnetic field. There are two major EDSR mechanisms. One arises from electric field-induced spin–orbit hybridization, and the other arises from magnetic field-induced energy-level crossing. The SOC introduced by the gate-induced electric field allows AC electric fields to drive coherent Rabi oscillations between spin-up and -down states. After the crossing of the energy-levels with the magnetic field, the spin-transfer crossing results in Rabi oscillation irrespective of whether or not the external electric field is present. The spin–orbit qubit is transferred into the orbit qubit. Rabi oscillation is anisotropic and periodic with respect to the tilted and in-plane orientation of the magnetic field originating from the interplay of the SOC, orbital, and Zeeman effects. The strong electrically-controlled SOC strength suggests the possibility for scalable applications of gate-controllable spin–orbit qubits.     

Spin manipulation in semiconductor quantum dots qubit

Thirty years of effort in semiconductor quantum dots has resulted in significant developments in the control of spin quantum bits(qubits). The natural two-energy level of spin states provides a path toward quantum information processing. In particular, the experimental implementation of spin control with high fidelity provides the possibility of realizing quantum computing. In this review, we will discuss the basic elements of spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots and summarize some important experiments that have demonstrated the direct manipulation of spin states with an applied electric field and/or magnetic field. The results of recent experiments on spin qubits reveal a bright future for quantum information processing.     

Entanglement in a three spin system controlled by electric and magnetic fields

We study the effect of electric field and magnetic flux on spin entanglement in an artificial triangular molecule built of coherently coupled quantum dots. In a subspace of doublet states an explicit relation of concurrence with spin correlation functions and chirality is presented. The electric field modifies superexchange correlations and shifts many-electron levels (the Stark effect), as well as changing spin correlations. For some specific orientation of the electric field one can observe monogamy, for which one of the spins is separated from two others. Moreover, the Stark effect manifests itself in a different spin entanglement for small and strong electric fields. The role of magnetic flux is opposite: it leads to circulation of spin supercurrents and spin delocalization.     

交变电场驱动下三量子点中双电子的动力学

采用三点哈巴德模型及弗洛盖定理．研究了交变电场驱动下线形三量子点分子中双电子的动力学行为。由于系统哈密顿量中不包含自旋反转项,所以系统单态和三重态子空间是完全解耦的,可以分开进行讨论。研究表明,自旋三重态九维子空间还可以进一步分解成三个不相耦合的子空间,在每一个子空间中,动力学行为与交变电场驱动的双量子点中双电子的动力学行为相似。对自旋单态6维子空间,数值计算还表明,在合适的外加交变电场驱动下,电子在量子点之间的隧穿被抑制．初始局域在一个量子点中的两个电子能够在一定时间内保持其局域状态。     

Effects of interactions in transport through Aharonov-Bohm-Casher interferometers

We study the conductance through a ring described by the Hubbard model (such as an array of quantum dots), threaded by a magnetic flux and subject to Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We develop a formalism that is able to describe the interference effects as well as the Kondo effect when the number of electrons in the ring is odd. In the Kondo regime, the SOC reduces the conductance from the unitary limit, and, in combination with the magnetic flux, the device acts as a spin polarizer.     

金属表面Rashba自旋轨道耦合作用研究进展

自旋轨道耦合是电子自旋与轨道相互作用的桥梁, 它提供了利用外电场来调控电子的轨道运动、进而调控电子自旋状态的可能. 固体材料中有很多有趣的物理现象, 例如磁晶各向异性、自旋霍尔效应、拓扑绝缘体等, 都与自旋轨道耦合密切相关. 在表面/界面体系中, 由于结构反演不对称导致的自旋轨道耦合称为Rashba自旋轨道耦合, 它最早在半导体材料中获得研究, 并因其强度可由栅电压灵活调控而备受关注, 成为电控磁性的重要物理基础之一. 继半导体材料后, 金属表面成为具有Rashba自旋轨道耦合作用的又一主流体系. 本文以Au(111), Bi(111), Gd(0001)等为例综述了磁性与非磁性金属表面Rashba自旋轨道耦合的研究进展, 讨论了表面电势梯度、原子序数、表面态波函数的对称性, 以及表面态中轨道杂化等因素对金属表面Rashba自旋轨道耦合强度的影响. 在磁性金属表面, 同时存在Rashba自旋轨道耦合作用与磁交换作用, 通过Rashba自旋轨道耦合可能实现电场对磁性的调控. 最后, 阐述了外加电场和表面吸附等方法对金属表面Rashba自旋轨道耦合的调控. 基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理计算和角分辨光电子能谱测量是金属表面Rashba自旋轨道耦合的两大主要研究方法, 本文综述了这两方面的研究结果, 对金属表面Rashba自旋轨道耦合进行了深入全面的总结和分析.     

基于重叠栅工艺的硅量子点阵列的制备与调控

利用半导体量子点阵列结构实现近邻耦合是规模化扩展自旋量子比特的主要方案之一.随着量子点数目的增加,量子点阵列器件的制作工艺及参数调控均愈加复杂.本文介绍了一种重叠栅工艺结构,利用多层相互重叠且具有不同功能的栅极定义量子点,制作出结构紧凑、调控性好的量子点阵列器件,解决了工艺扩展的难题.此外,本文发展了一套高效可靠的调控方法,按顺序逐个添加量子点并建立虚拟电极,实现了对量子点参数的独立控制,并且能够高效且独立地调控各量子点中的电子数目,克服了大规模量子点阵列中电压参数配置的困难.这些方法为未来实现大规模自旋比特阵列提供了一种标准化的方案.     

Electric field control of spin splitting in III–V semiconductor quantum dots without magnetic field

We provide an alternative means of electric field control for spin manipulation in the absence of magnetic fields by transporting quantum dots adiabatically in the plane of two-dimensional electron gas. We show that the spin splitting energy of moving quantum dots is possible due to the presence of quasi-Hamiltonian that might be implemented to make the next generation spintronic devices of post CMOS technology. Such spin splitting energy is highly dependent on the material properties of semiconductor. It turns out that this energy is in the range of meV and can be further enhanced with increasing pulse frequency. In particular, we show that quantum oscillations in phonon mediated spin-flip behaviors can be observed. We also confirm that no oscillations in spin-flip behaviors can be observed for the pure Rashba or pure Dresselhaus cases.     

Electrically tunable g factors in quantum dot molecular spin states

We present a magnetophotoluminescence study of individual vertically stacked InAs/GaAs quantum dot pairs separated by thin tunnel barriers. As an applied electric field tunes the relative energies of the two dots, we observe a strong resonant increase or decrease in the g factors of different spin states that have molecular wave functions distributed over both quantum dots. We propose a phenomenological model for the change in g factor based on resonant changes in the amplitude of the wave function in the barrier due to the formation of bonding and antibonding orbitals.     

自旋轨道耦合和电势共同调节的石墨烯中的自旋极化性质

近年来,石墨烯中电子的自旋相关输运引起了越来越多的关注.本论文应用转移矩阵的方法讨论了石墨烯中具有单个界面或者两个界面的结构中,受到自旋-轨道耦合作用和电势的共同影响下自旋相关的输运性质.对于单个界面结构,由于自旋-轨道耦合作用导致能级产生劈裂,在固定的入射能量下,电子在自旋-轨道耦合区域产生两种传播模式.在自旋-轨道耦合区域加了电势后,透射几率和模式临界角都会受到较大的影响.对于两个界面结构,粒子的透射几率不仅与入射角有关,还与自旋-轨道耦合区域的宽度和自旋进动长度有关,而电势对同自旋方向的传输几率以及自旋反转的几率都有影响,适当地选取系统的参数和电势的大小,可以控制出射的电子自旋方向,实验上可以用来设计自旋反转器或者或者自旋控制器.     

A spin switch device based on a triple quantum dots superlattice using the Dicke effect

Spin-dependent transport in a triple quantum dots superlattice system with a bridge coupling to two leads is studied. There exists an odd-even parity oscillation of spin polarization at the central dot level εc = 0 due to the spin-dependent Fano and Dicke effects induced by the quantum interference and the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. In the case of even numbers of triple quantum dots, the device can be used as a spin switch by tuning the energy difference h between the energies of the central and the lateral dots. These results may be helpful to design and fabricate practical spintronic devices.     

Control of vertically coupled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots with electric fields

Controllable interactions that couple quantum dots are a key requirement in the search for scalable solid state implementations for quantum information technology. From optical studies of excitons and corresponding calculations, we demonstrate that an electric field on vertically coupled pairs of In(0.6)Ga(0.4)As/GaAs quantum dots controls the mixing of the exciton states on the two dots and also provides controllable coupling between carriers in the dots.     

Quantum toys for quantum computing: persistent currents controlled by the spin Josephson effect

Quantum devices and computers will need operational units in different architectural configurations for their functioning. The unit should be a simple "quantum toy," an easy to handle superposition state. Here such a novel unit of quantum mechanical flux state (or persistent current) in a conducting ring with three ferromagnetic quantum dots is presented. The state is labeled by the two directions of the persistent current, which is driven by the spin chirality of the dots, and is controlled by the spin (the spin Josephson effect). It is demonstrated that by the use of two connected rings, one can carry out unitary transformations on the input flux state by controlling one spin in one of the rings, enabling us to prepare superposition states. The flux is shown to be a quantum operation gate, and may be useful in quantum computing.     

Adiabatic passage schemes in coupled semiconductor nanostructures

Adiabatic passage schemes in coupled semiconductor quantum dots are discussed. For optical control, a doped double-dot molecule is proposed as a qubit realization. The quantum information is encoded in the carrier spin, and the flexibility of the molecular structure allows to map the spin degrees of freedom onto the orbital ones and vice versa, which opens the possibility for high-finesse quantum gates by means of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. For tunnel-coupled dots, adiabatic passage of two correlated electrons in three coupled quantum dots is shown to provide a robust and controlled way of distilling, transporting and detecting spin entanglement, as well as of measuring the rate of spin disentanglement. Employing tunable interdot coupling the scheme creates, from an unentangled two-electron state, a superposition of spatially separated singlet and triplet states, which can be discriminated through a single measurement. Finally, we discuss phonon-assisted dephasing in quantum dots, and present control strategies to suppress such genuine solid-state decoherence losses.     

Spin current pumping with two orthogonal electric fields in quantum wire

We study the problem of spin current pumping in a one-dimensional quantum wire when there exist two orthogonal Rashba spin-orbit couplings (SOCs) in different regions which evolve with time and can be induced by the perpendicular electric fields. On one hand, we demonstrate that the time-evolving Rashba SOC is equivalent to the spin-dependent electric field and the scheme may lead to the pure spin current associated with well suppressed charge current. On the other hand, we adopt the non-equilibrium Green's function method and numerically find that the parameter loop must satisfy certain condition for the successful pumping. We also study the effect of the Fermi energy and the inevitable disorder on the spin current. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Stimulated and spontaneous optical generation of electron spin coherence in charged GaAs quantum dots

We report on the coherent optical excitation of electron spin polarization in the ground state of charged GaAs quantum dots via an intermediate charged exciton (trion) state. Coherent optical fields are used for the creation and detection of the Raman spin coherence between the spin ground states of the charged quantum dot. The measured spin decoherence time, which is likely limited by the nature of the spin ensemble, approaches 10 ns at zero field. We also show that the Raman spin coherence in the quantum beats is caused not only by the usual stimulated Raman interaction but also by simultaneous spontaneous radiative decay of either excited trion state to a coherent combination of the two spin states.     

Spin relaxation and decoherence of holes in quantum dots

We investigate heavy-hole spin relaxation and decoherence in quantum dots in perpendicular magnetic fields. We show that at low temperatures the spin decoherence time is 2 times longer than the spin relaxation time. We find that the spin relaxation time for heavy holes can be comparable to or even longer than that for electrons in strongly two-dimensional quantum dots. We discuss the difference in the magnetic-field dependence of the spin relaxation rate due to Rashba or Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling for systems with positive (i.e., GaAs quantum dots) or negative (i.e., InAs quantum dots) g factor.     

半导体中的自旋弛豫——从体材料到量子阱、量子线、量子点

本文对半导体中的自旋弛豫过程给出一个简要的回顾,介绍了半导体材料从体材料到量子阱、量子线、量子点不同维数的结构中各种自旋弛豫过程,主要关注了自旋去相位和相干控制。对于不同材料中的各种弛豫机制,关注的重点在于如何能够在实验上以一种可以控制的方式来改变可调参数从而达到控制自旋弛豫过程。这些参数主要有电场、磁场、温度、应变、有效g因子等等。本文的组织上,首先介绍研究前景,第1部分简要介绍了自旋弛豫的四种机制。第2部分按照维数的不同将半导体中自旋弛豫分为3个部分:体材料、量子阱、量子线、量子点,在每一部分中又基本上按照电子、空穴、激子的顺序进行了简要的总结:对于不同的载流子,考虑了自旋弛豫对可调参数的依赖关系。这些结果要么试图解释了已有的实验结果,要么从理论上给出预言从而给实验指明了方向,为室温下可以使用的自旋电子学器件设计提供了依据,为固态量子计算和量子信息处理铺平了道路。最后简单地给出展望。     

半导体中的自旋弛豫--从体材料到量子阱、量子线、量子点

本文对半导体中的自旋弛豫过程给出一个简要的回顾,介绍了半导体材料从体材料到量子阱、量子线、量子点不同维数的结构中各种自旋弛豫过程,主要关注了自旋去相位和相干控制。对于不同材料中的各种弛豫机制,关注的重点在于如何能够在实验上以一种可以控制的方式来改变可调参数从而达到控制自旋弛豫过程。这些参数主要有电场、磁场、温度、应变、有效g因子等等。本文的组织上,首先介绍研究前景,第1部分简要介绍了自旋弛豫的四种机制。第2部分按照维数的不同将半导体中自旋弛豫分为3个部分:体材料、量子阱、量子线、量子点,在每一部分中又基本上按照电子、空穴、激子的顺序进行了简要的总结:对于不同的载流子,考虑了自旋弛豫对可调参数的依赖关系。这些结果要么试图解释了已有的实验结果,要么从理论上给出预言从而给实验指明了方向,为室温下可以使用的自旋电子学器件设计提供了依据,为固态量子计算和量子信息处理铺平了道路。最后简单地给出展望。     

Spectroscopy of spin-orbit quantum bits in indium antimonide nanowires

A double quantum dot in the few-electron regime is achieved using local gating in an InSb nanowire. The spectrum of two-electron eigenstates is investigated using electric dipole spin resonance. Singlet-triplet level repulsion caused by spin-orbit interaction is observed. The size and the anisotropy of singlet-triplet repulsion are used to determine the magnitude and the orientation of the spin-orbit effective field in an InSb nanowire double dot. The obtained results are confirmed using spin blockade leakage current anisotropy and transport spectroscopy of individual quantum dots.