arXiv subjects

L. J. Sham

Publications and source records attributed to L. J. Sham.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Optically-controlled logic gates for two spin qubits in vertically-coupled quantum dots

We describe an interaction mechanism between electron spins in a vertically-stacked double quantum dot that can be used for controlled two-qubit operations. This interaction is mediated by excitons confined within, and delocalized over, the double dot. We show that gates equivalent to the SQRT-SWAP gate can be obtained in times much less than the exciton relaxation time and that the negative effects of hole-mixing and spontaneous emission do not seriously affect these results.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Linking entanglement and quantum phase transitions via density functional theory

Density functional theory (DFT) is shown to provide a novel conceptual and computational framework for entanglement in interacting many-body quantum systems. DFT can, in particular, shed light on the intriguing relationship between quantum phase transitions and entanglement. We use DFT concepts to express entanglement measures in terms of the first or second derivative of the ground state energy. We illustrate the versatility of the DFT approach via a variety of analytically solvable models. As a further application we discuss entanglement and quantum phase transitions in the case of mean field approximations for realistic models of many-body systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Spin extraction theory and its relevance to spintronics

Extraction of electrons from a semiconductor to a ferromagnet as well as the case of injection in the reverse direction may be formulated as a scattering theory. However, the presence of bound states at the interface arising out of doping on the semiconductor side must be taken into account in the scattering theory. Inclusion of the interface states yields an explanation of a recent result of spin imaging measurement which contradicts the current understanding of spin extraction. The importance of an extraction theory to spintronics is illustrated by an application to a spin switch.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Theory of nonlinear optical spectroscopy of electron spin coherence in quantum dots

We study in theory the generation and detection of electron spin coherence in nonlinear optical spectroscopy of semiconductor quantum dots doped with single electrons. In third-order differential transmission spectra, the inverse width of the ultra-narrow peak at degenerate pump and probe frequencies gives the spin relaxation time ($T_1$), and that of the Stoke and anti-Stoke spin resonances gives the effective spin dephasing time due to the inhomogeneous broadening ($T_2^*$). The spin dephasing time excluding the inhomogeneous broadening effect ($T_2$) is measured by the inverse width of ultra-narrow hole-burning resonances in fifth-order differential transmission spectra.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Restoring Coherence Lost to a Slow Interacting Mesoscopic Bath

For a two-state quantum object interacting with a slow mesoscopic interacting spin bath, we show that a many-body solution of the bath dynamics conditioned on the quantum-object state leads to an efficient control scheme to recover the lost quantum-object coherence through disentanglement. We demonstrate the theory with the realistic problem of one electron spin in a bath of many interacting nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot. The spin language is easily generalized to a quantum object in contact with a bath of interacting multi-level quantum units with the caveat that it is mesoscopic and its dynamics is slow compared with the quantum object.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Electric readout of magnetization dynamics in a ferromagnet-semiconductor system

We apply an analysis of time-dependent spin-polarized current in a semiconductor channel at room temperature to establish how the magnetization configuration and dynamics of three ferromagnetic terminals, two of them biased and third connected to a capacitor, affect the currents and voltages. In a steady state, the voltage on the capacitor is related to spin accumulation in the channel. When the magnetization of one of the terminals is rotated, a transient current is triggered. This effect can be used for electrical detection of magnetization reversal dynamics of an electrode or for dynamical readout of the alignment of two magnetic contacts.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Single Electron Spin Decoherence by Nuclear Spin Bath: Linked Cluster Expansion Approach

We develop a theoretical model for transverse dynamics of a single electron spin interacting with a nuclear spin bath. The approach allows a simple diagrammatic representation and analytical expressions of different nuclear spin excitation processes contributing to electron spin decoherence and dynamical phase fluctuations. It accounts for nuclear spin dynamics beyond conventional pair correlation models. As an illustration of the theory, we evaluated the coherence dynamics of a P donor electron spin in a Si crystal.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Fast initialization of the spin state of an electron in a quantum dot in the Voigt configuration

We consider the initialization of the spin-state of a single electron trapped in a self-assembled quantum dot via optical pumping of a trion level. We show that with a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the growth direction of the dot, a near-unity fidelity can be obtained in a time equal to a few times the inverse of the spin-conserving trion relaxation rate. This method is several orders-of-magnitude faster than with the field aligned parallel, since this configuration must rely on a slow hole spin-flip mechanism. This increase in speed does result in a limit on the maximum obtainable fidelity, but we show that for InAs dots, the error is very small.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Theory of electron spin decoherence by interacting nuclear spins in a quantum dot

We present a quantum solution to the electron spin decoherence by a nuclear pair-correlation method for the electron-nuclear spin dynamics under a strong magnetic field and a temperature high for the nuclear spins but low for the electron. The theory incorporates the hyperfine interaction, the intrinsic (both direct and indirect) nuclear interactions, and the extrinsic nuclear coupling mediated by the hyperfine interaction with the single electron in question. The last is shown to be important in free-induction decay (FID) of the single electron spin coherence. The spin echo eliminates the hyperfine-mediated decoherence but only reduces the decoherence by the intrinsic nuclear interactions. Thus, the decoherence times for single spin FID and ensemble spin echo are significantly different. The decoherence is explained in terms of quantum entanglement, which involves more than the spectral diffusion.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Spintronics for electrical measurement of light polarization

The helicity of a circularly polarized light beam may be determined by the spin direction of photo-excited electrons in a III-V semiconductor. We present a theoretical demonstration how the direction of the ensuing electron spin polarization may be determined by electrical means of two ferromagnet/semiconductor Schottky barriers. The proposed scheme allows for time-resolved detection of spin accumulation in small structures and may have a device application.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Lateral diffusive spin transport in layered structures

A one dimensional theory of lateral spin-polarized transport is derived from the two dimensional flow in the vertical cross section of a stack of ferromagnetic and paramagnetic layers. This takes into account the influence of the lead on the lateral current underneath, in contrast to the conventional 1D modeling by the collinear configuration of lead/channel/lead. Our theory is convenient and appropriate for the current in plane configuration of an all-metallic spintronics structure as well as for the planar structure of a semiconductor with ferromagnetic contacts. For both systems we predict the optimal contact width for maximal magnetoresistance and propose an electrical measurement of the spin diffusion length for a wide range of materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2005

Ultrafast Quenching of Ferromagnetism in InMnAs Induced by Intense Laser Irradiation

Time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopy of ferromagnetic InMnAs reveals two distinct {\em demagnetization} processes -- fast ($<1$ ps) and slow ($\sim$100 ps). Both components diminish with increasing temperature and are absent above the Curie temperature. The fast component rapidly grows with pump power and saturates at high fluences ($>10$ mJ/cm$^2$); the saturation value indicates a {\em complete quenching} of ferromagnetism on a sub-picosecond time scale. We attribute this fast dynamics to spin heating through $p$-$d$ exchange interaction between photo-carriers and Mn ions while the $\sim$100 ps component is interpreted as spin-lattice relaxation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Theory of Umklapp-assisted recombination of bound excitons in Si:P

We present the calculations for the oscillator strength of the recombination of excitons bound to phosphorous donors in silicon. We show that the direct recombination of the bound exciton cannot account for the experimentally measured oscillator strength of the no-phonon line. Instead, the recombination process is assisted by an umklapp process of the donor electron state. We make use of the empirical pseudopotential method to evaluate the Umklapp-assisted recombination matrix element in second-order perturbation theory. Our result is in excellent agreement with the experiment. We also present two methods to improve the optical resolution of the optical detection of the spin state of a single nucleus in silicon.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

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.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Variable resistance at the boundary between semimetal and excitonic insulator

We solve the two-band model for the transport across a junction between a semimetal and an excitonic insulator. We analyze the current in terms of two competing terms associated with neutral excitons and charged carriers, respectively. We find a high value for the interface resistance, extremely sensitive to the junction transparency. We explore favorable systems for experimental confirmation.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Coherent transport in homojunction between excitonic insulator and semimetal

From the solution of a two-band model, we predict that the thermal and electrical transport across the junction of a semimetal and an excitonic insulator will exhibit high resistance behavior and low entropy production at low temperatures, distinct from a junction of a semimetal and a normal semiconductor. This phenomenon, ascribed to the dissipationless exciton flow which dominates over the charge transport, is based on the much longer length scale of the change of the effective interface potential for electron scattering due to the coherence of the condensate than in the normal state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

A Unified Theory of Consequences of Spontaneous Emission in a $Λ$ System

In a $Λ$ system with two nearly degenerate ground states and one excited state in an atom or quantum dot, spontaneous radiative decay can lead to a range of phenomena, including electron-photon entanglement, spontaneously generated coherence, and two-pathway decay. We show that a treatment of the radiative decay as a quantum evolution of a single physical system composed of a three-level electron subsystem and photons leads to a range of consequences depending on the electron-photon interaction and the measurement. Different treatments of the emitted photon channel the electron-photon system into a variety of final states. The theory is not restricted to the three-level system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Indirect coupling between spins in semiconductor quantum dots

The optically induced indirect exchange interaction between spins in two quantum dots is investigated theoretically. We present a microscopic formulation of the interaction between the localized spin and the itinerant carriers including the effects of correlation, using a set of canonical transformations. Correlation effects are found to be of comparable magnitude as the direct exchange. We give quantitative results for realistic quantum dot geometries and find the largest couplings for one dimensional systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗