A spin dephasing mechanism mediated by the interplay between the spin-orbit coupling and the asymmetrical confining potential in a semiconductor quantum dot

Spin-photon interaction in a nanowire quantum dot with asymmetrical confining potential

The electron (hole) spin-photon interaction is studied in an asymmetrical InSb (Ge) nanowire quantum dot. The spin-orbit coupling in the quantum dot mediates not only a transverse spin-photon interaction, but also a longitudinal spin-photon interaction due to the asymmetry of the confining potential. Both the transverse and the longitudinal spin-photon interactions have non-monotonic dependence on the spin-orbit coupling. For realistic spin-orbit coupling in the quantum dot, the longitudinal spin-photon interaction is much (at least one order) smaller than the transverse spin-photon interaction. The order of the transverse spin-photon interaction is about 1 nm in terms of length|zeg|, or 0.1 MHz in terms of frequencyeE0|zeg|/hfor a moderate cavity electric field strengthE0=0.4V m-1.

Two-band description of the strong 'spin'-orbit coupled one-dimensional hole gas in a cylindrical Ge nanowire

The low-energy effective Hamiltonian of the strong 'spin'-orbit coupled one-dimensional hole gas in a cylindrical Ge nanowire in the presence of a strong magnetic field is studied both numerically and analytically. Basing on the Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian in the spherical approximation, we show this strong 'spin'-orbit coupled one-dimensional hole gas can be accurately described by an effective two-band HamiltonianHef=ℏ2kz2/(2mh∗)+ασxkz+gh∗μBBσz/2, as long as the magnetic field is purely longitudinal or purely transverse. The explicit magnetic field dependent expressions of the 'spin'-orbit couplingα≡α(B)and the effectiveg-factorgh∗≡gh∗(B)are given. When the magnetic field is applied in an arbitrary direction, the two-band Hamiltonian description is still a good approximation.

Searching strong 'spin'-orbit coupled one-dimensional hole gas in strong magnetic fields

We show that a strong 'spin'-orbit coupled one-dimensional hole gas is achievable via applying a strong magnetic field to the original two-fold degenerate (spin degeneracy) hole gas confined in a cylindrical Ge nanowire. Both strong longitudinal and strong transverse magnetic fields are feasible to achieve this goal. Based on quasi-degenerate perturbation calculations, we show the induced low-energy subband dispersion of the hole gas can be written asE=ℏ2kz2/(2mh*)+ασzkz+gh*μBBσx/2, a form exactly the same as that of the electron gas in the conduction band. Here the Pauli matricesσ^z,xrepresent a pseudo spin (or 'spin'), because the real spin degree of freedom has been split off from the subband dispersions by the strong magnetic field. Also, for a moderate nanowire radiusR= 10 nm, the induced effective hole massmh*(0.065∼0.08me)and the 'spin'-orbit couplingα(0.35 ∼ 0.8 eV Å) have a small magnetic field dependence in the studied magnetic field interval 1 <B< 15 T, while the effectiveg-factorgh*of the hole 'spin' only has a small magnetic field dependence in the large field region.

Low-energy subband wave-functions and effectiveg-factor of one-dimensional hole gas

One-dimensional (1D) hole gas confined in a cylindrical Ge nanowire has potential applications in quantum information technologies. Here, we analytically study the low-energy properties of this 1D hole gas. The subbands of the hole gas are two-fold degenerate. The low-energy subband wave-functions are obtained exactly, and the degenerate pairs are related to each other via a combination of the time-reversal and the spin-rotation transformations. In evaluating the effectiveg-factor of these low-energy subbands, the orbital effects of the magnetic field are shown to contribute as strongly as the Zeeman term. Also, near the center of thek_zspace, there is a sharp dip or a sharp peak in the effectiveg-factor. At the sitek_z= 0, the longitudinalg-factorg_lis much less than the transverseg-factorg_tfor the lowest subband, while away from the sitek_z= 0,g_lcan be comparable tog_t.

Charge noise induced spin dephasing in a nanowire double quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling

Unexpected fluctuating charge field near a semiconductor quantum dot has severely limited the coherence time of the localized spin qubit. It is the interplay between the spin-orbit coupling and the asymmetrical confining potential in a quantum dot, that mediates the longitudinal interaction between the spin qubit and the fluctuating charge field. Here, we study the 1/f  charge noise induced spin dephasing in a nanowire double quantum dot via exactly solving its eigen-energies and eigenfunctions. Our calculations demonstrate that the spin dephasing has a nonmonotonic dependence on the asymmetry of the double quantum dot confining potential. With the increase of the potential asymmetry, the dephasing rate first becomes stronger very sharply before reaching to a maximum, after that it becomes weaker softly. Also, we find that the applied external magnetic field contributes to the spin dephasing, the dephasing rate is strongest at the anti-crossing point B ₀ in the double quantum dot.