Nuclear spin diffusion in the central spin system of a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot

Abstract

The spin diffusion concept provides a classical description of a purely quantum-mechanical evolution in inhomogeneously polarized many-body systems such as nuclear spin lattices. The central spin of a localized electron alters nuclear spin diffusion in a way that is still poorly understood. In contrast to previous predictions, we show experimentally that in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots the electron spin accelerates nuclear spin diffusion, without forming any Knight field gradient barrier. Such acceleration is present even at high magnetic fields, which we explain as a result of electron spin-flip fluctuations. Diffusion-limited nuclear spin lifetimes range between 1 and 10 s, providing plenty of room for recent proposals seeking to store and process quantum information using quantum dot nuclear spins.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Enhanced Electron Spin Coherence in a GaAs Quantum Emitter
• Approaching a fully-polarized state of nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot
• Electron-to-nuclear spectral mapping via "Galton board" dynamic nuclear polarization
• Quantum non-demolition measurement of an electron spin qubit through its low-energy many-body spin environment
• Nanoscale engineering and dynamical stabilization of mesoscopic spin textures
• Hole spin coherence in InAs/InAlGaAs self-assembled quantum dots emitting at telecom wavelengths
• Slowly generated anomalously large nuclear field in bulk n-AlGaAs