2019/02/28 by Paweł Karwat, Krzysztof Gawarecki, Paweł Machnikowski
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design #Atomic physics #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Hyperfine structure #Phonon #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum dot #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin-flip #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.104.045308
published as Phys. Rev. B 104, 045308 (2021) · Substantially revised and extended version
arxiv created 2021/01/15 · openalex publication_date 2021/07/19 · arxiv updated 2021/07/28 · openalex created_date 2021/08/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
We calculate the rates of phonon-assisted hyperfine spin flips during electron and hole tunneling between quantum dots in a self-assembled quantum dot molecule. We show that the hyperfine process dominates over the spin-orbit-induced spin relaxation in magnetic fields up to a few teslas for electrons, while for holes this crossover takes place at field magnitudes of a fraction of a tesla, upon the assumption of a large d-shell admixture to the valence band state, resulting in a strong transverse hyperfine coupling. The interplay of the two spin-flip mechanisms leads to a minimum of the spin-flip probability, which is, in principle, experimentally measurable and can be used as a test for the presence of substantial transverse hyperfine couplings in the valence band.