Nuclear spin decoherence of neutral ${}^{31}$P donors in silicon: Effect of environmental ${}^{29}$Si nuclei

Abstract

Spectral diffusion arising from ${}^{29}$Si nuclear spin flip-flops, known to be a primary source of electron spin decoherence in silicon, is also predicted to limit the coherence times of neutral donor nuclear spins in silicon. Here, the impact of this mechanism on ${}^{31}$P nuclear spin coherence is measured as a function of ${}^{29}$Si concentration using X-band pulsed electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR). The ${}^{31}$P nuclear spin echo decays show that decoherence is controlled by ${}^{29}$Si flip-flops resulting in both fast (exponential) and slow (non-exponential) spectral diffusion processes. The decay times span a range from 100 ms in crystals containing 50% ${}^{29}$Si to 3 s in crystals containing 1% ${}^{29}$Si. These nuclear spin echo decay times for neutral donors are orders of magnitude longer than those reported for ionized donors in natural silicon. The electron spin of the neutral donors `protects' the donor nuclear spins by suppressing ${}^{29}$Si flip-flops within a `frozen core', as a result of the detuning of the ${}^{29}$Si spins caused by their hyperfine coupling to the electron spin.

References in corpus (7)

• Solid state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin
• Room temperature quantum bit storage exceeding 39 minutes using ionized donors in 28-silicon
• Electron spin decoherence in isotope-enriched silicon
• Quantum Decoherence of the Central Spin in a Sparse System of Dipolar Coupled Spins
• Davies ENDOR revisited: Enhanced sensitivity and nuclear spin relaxation
• Decoherence of nuclear spins in the "frozen core" of an electron spin
• ${}^{29}$Si nuclear spins as a resource for donor spin qubits in silicon

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Entanglement and control of single quantum memories in isotopically engineered silicon carbide
• Microscopic model of spin flip-flop processes in rare-earth-ion-doped crystals
• Multiple-quantum transitions and charge-induced decoherence of donor nuclear spins in silicon