1202.4637 (Bernhard Urbaszek et al.)

Nuclear spin physics in quantum dots: an optical investigation    [PDF]

Bernhard Urbaszek, Xavier Marie, Thierry Amand, Olivier Krebs, Paul Voisin, Patrick Maletinsky, Alexander Hogele, Atac Imamoglu

The mesoscopic spin system formed by the 10E4-10E6 nuclear spins in a
semiconductor quantum dot offers a unique setting for the study of many-body
spin physics in the condensed matter. The dynamics of this system and its
coupling to electron spins is fundamentally different from its bulk
counter-part as well as that of atoms due to increased fluctuations that result
from reduced dimensions. In recent years, the interest in studying quantum dot
nuclear spin systems and their coupling to confined electron spins has been
fueled by its direct implication for possible applications of such systems in
quantum information processing as well as by the fascinating nonlinear
(quantum-)dynamics of the coupled electron-nuclear spin system. In this
article, we review experimental work performed over the last decades in
studying this mesoscopic,coupled electron-nuclear spin system and discuss how
optical addressing of electron spins can be exploited to manipulate and
read-out quantum dot nuclei. We discuss how such techniques have been applied
in quantum dots to efficiently establish a non-zero mean nuclear spin
polarization and, most recently, were used to reduce fluctuations of the
average quantum dot nuclear spin orientation. Both results in turn have
important implications for the preservation of electron spin coherence in
quantum dots, which we discuss. We conclude by speculating how this recently
gained understanding of the quantum dot nuclear spin system could in the future
enable experimental observation of quantum-mechanical signatures or possible
collective behavior of mesoscopic nuclear spin ensembles.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.4637