Spin Filter Effect in a Parallel Double Quantum Dot

We present a theoretical study of the spectral and the spin-dependent transport properties of a few electron semiconductor parallel double quantum dot (DQD) in the presence of local induced Zeeman splittings at the quantum dots. Working in an extended Hubbard model and treating the coupled QD as a single coherent system, the linear response spin-dependent conductance is calculated at low temperatures. We analyze the conditions such that the device would operate as a bipolar spin filter by only varying the incident electron Fermi energy from non-magnetic leads.     

Spin Filter Effect in a Parallel Double Quantum Dot

We present a theoretical study of the spectral and the spin-dependent transport properties of a few electron semiconductor parallel double quantum dot (DQD) in the presence of local induced Zeeman splittings at the quantum dots. Working in an extended Hubbard model and treating the coupled QD as a single coherent system, the linear response spin-dependent conductance is calculated at low temperatures. We analyze the conditions such that the device would operate as a bipolar spin filter by only varying the incident electron Fermi energy from non-magnetic leads.     

Quantum Monte Carlo Study of Entanglement in Quantum Spin Systems

We perform an extensive quantum Monte Carlo investigation of entanglement properties in quantum spin systems close to or at a quantum critical point. Making use of the Stochastic Series Expansion method, we can systematically estimate the bipartite entanglement of the ground-state wavefunction in a large class of anisotropic spin models on unfrustrated lattices and in a uniform magnetic field. The behavior of the entanglement estimators as a function of the field shows remarkable universal features independent of the lattice dimensionality, marking both the occurrence of a field-induced quantum phase transition and of an exactly factorized state.PACS numbers: 03.67.Mn, 75.10.Jm, 73.43.Nq, 05.30.-d     

Spin Polarization in Low-Density Quantum Wires

We present the results of the theoretical analysis of quasi one-dimensional electron gas within the Hartree–Fock approximation. The ground state energy for full polarized and unpolarized states is calculated at T = 0. The formation of spontaneously spin-polarized state at low linear concentration of electrons and its transformation to unpolarized state as concentration increases is discussed.     

Tunable Spin Current Through a Vibrating Molecular Quantum Dot with Spin Bias and Spin Flip Scattering

By applying the Lang-Firsov canonical transformation and the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green’s function approach, the effect of the spin-flip scattering on the spin current through a vibrating molecular quantum dot with spin bias is theoretically investigated. We can obtain the spin current from the output terminal, and find that the sign of the spin current can be changed by adjusting the spin-flip strength, and a pure spin current can be generated via the charge bias and the spin bias. In the presence of the electron-phonon interaction, the positions of the current peaks are shifted and the spin current is remarkably suppressed, which leads to the Franck-Condon blockade. Furthermore, it is found that the competition between the EPI and the spin-flip scattering jointly determines the character of the spin current. These results offer us a way to manipulate the spin current in the spin current setup. The proposed device should be realizable with use of the present technology at low temperature.     

Spin Effects in Lateral Quantum Dots

We present the review of our work on spin effects in single lateral quantum dots with the emphasis on the results of Coulomb blockade spectroscopy studies. Realization of a spin-based quantum bit proposal in a lateral quantum dot is discussed. Described are the ways of isolating a single electron spin in a dot containing only one as well as many electrons. Demonstrated is a current readout of spin transitions in a dot by means of spin blockade spectroscopy due to spin polarized injection/detection mechanism in a lateral dot. Discussed are transitions induced both by changing a magnetic field and a number of electrons in a dot with the emphasis on the effects observed close to filling factor in a dot = 2.     

Spin Relaxation in a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas in Si Quantum Wells

Electron spin resonance of two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in Si/SiGe quantum wells allows to evaluate both the longitudinal and the dephasing spin relaxation time. Diakonov–Perel (DP) relaxation, caused by Bychkov–Rashba (BR) spin orbit coupling, occurs to be the dominant mechanism in high mobility samples. For low mobility the Elliott–Yaffet mechanism dominates the longitudinal spin relaxation. When the BR effect is small, inhomogeneous broadening caused by potential fluctuations is seen. We compare spin relaxation of the 2D electron gas in Si and in GaAs quantum wells with respect to applications of these materials in spintronics.     

Anisotropic Spin Splitting and Spin Relaxation in AlGaAs/GaAs Quantum Structures

Spin relaxation due to the D'yakonov–Perel' mechanism is intimately related with the spin splitting of the electronic states. We calculate the spin relaxation rates from anisotropic spin splittings of electron subbands in n-(001)-AlGaAs/GaAs quantum structures obtained in a self-consistent multiband approach. The giant anisotropy of spin relaxation rates found for different spin components in the (001) plane can be ascribed to a mutual compensation of terms because of the asymmetry of the bulk crystal and the quantum well structure.     

Spin Degree of Freedom and Tunneling through a Quantum Dot

A review is given on theoretical studies of roles of the spindegree of freedom in transport through a quantum dot with thetotal spin S for N electrons and for N+1electrons in the ground state. The conductance and the phasecoherency are expressed in terms of universal functions ofS, , and the spin splitting at small tunnelingrates in the absence of spin-orbit interactions and are shownto exhibit the correlation between tunnelings of electronswith opposite spins and the dephasing due to spin flips.     

Influence of Magnetic Field and LO Phonon Effects on the Spin Polarization State Energy of Strong-Coupling Bipolaron in a Quantum Dot

On the basis of Lee–Low–Pines unitary transformation, the influence of magnetic field and LO phonon effects on the energy of spin polarization states of strong-coupling bipolarons in a quantum dot (QD) is studied by using the variational method of Pekar type. The variations of the ground state energy $E_0$ and the first excited state the energy $E_1$ of bipolarons in a two-dimensional QD with the confinement strength of QDs $\omega _0$ , dielectric constant ratio $\eta $ , electron–phonon coupling strength $\alpha $ and cyclotron resonance frequency of the magnetic field $\omega _{c}$ are derived when the influence of the spin and external magnetic field is taken into account. The results show that both energies of the ground and first excited states ( $E_0$ and $E_1)$ consist of four parts: the single-particle energy of electrons $E_\mathrm{e}$ , Coulomb interaction energy between two electrons $E_\mathrm{c}$ , interaction energy between the electron spin and magnetic field $E_\mathrm{S}$ and interaction energy between the electron and phonon $E_{\mathrm{e-ph}}$ ; the energy level of the first excited state $E_1$ splits into two lines as $E_1^{(1+1)}$ and $E_1^{(1-1)}$ due to the interaction between the single-particle “orbital” motion and magnetic field, and each energy level of the ground and first excited states splits into three “fine structures” caused by the interaction between the electron spin and magnetic field; the value of $E_{\mathrm{e-ph}}$ is always less than zero and its absolute value increases with increasing $\omega _0$ , $\alpha $ and $\omega _c$ ; the effect of the interaction between the electron and phonon is favorable to forming the binding bipolaron, but the existence of the confinement potential and Coulomb repulsive energy between electrons goes against that; the bipolaron with energy $E_1^{(1-1)}$ is easier and more stable in the binding state than that with $E_1^{(1+1)}$ .     

Spin Interaction Effect on Potentiometric Measurements in a Quantum Well Channel

Spin-orbit interaction induced magnetic field, which can arise from an asymmetry of the potential well, causes imbalance of carrier densities between spin-up and spin-down electrons. In the potentiometric measurement, the detected signal follows the magnetization status of the detection ferromagnet (FM1). In case of adding the neighboring ferromagnet (FM2), the measured potential is decided by both of FMs. When the magnitude of external field is between the coercive field of the FM1 and FM2, the detector reads the intermediate potential. The detector interacts with the neighboring ferromagnet and shows four levels of potential states.      

Electrical Manipulation of Spin Injection into a Single InAs Quantum Dots

We demonstrate spin injection from a n-Zn_0.96Mn_0.04Se layer into individual InAs quantum dots (SQDs) in a p–i–n diode structure using cw polarization resolved magneto-micro photoluminescence spectroscopy. Interestingly, we find that the spin injection efficiency strongly varies from dot to dot. We obtain a single quantum dot circular polarization degree ranging from 2% to almost 50% (at B=4 T) at zero biasing and within the spectral range studied here, we found 2 maxima of the degree of the circular polarization at SQD energies separated by ∼33 meV. Importantly, we demonstrate that the spin injection efficiency can be manipulated by external forward biasing (U _ext).     

Switching of Current Spin Polarization by Electron-Phonon Interaction in a Quantum Dot Device

We study spin-polarized electron transport through a quantum dot coupled to one normal metal lead and one ferromagnetic lead. Both the intradot Coulomb correlation and the electron-phonon interaction are taken into account in the framework of nonequilibrium Green’s function theory. We find that due to the interplay of the Coulomb blockade effect and the phonon-induced extra electron transport channels, the spin polarization of the electron current driven by external bias voltage is enhanced in a range of negative biases in which the current is flowing from the ferromagnetic lead to the normal metal one. While for the corresponding positive biases, the current polarization is suppressed to negative values where the current is flowing from the normal metal lead to the ferromagnetic one. The device thus operates as a current polarization switcher without the need of a magnetic field or spin-orbit interaction, and may find use in low-power spintronic devices with the help of phonon engineering techniques.     

Filtering Spin with Tunnel-Coupled Hole Quantum Wires

Creating spin-polarized currents in nonmagnetic semiconductors is one of the key prerequisites for realizing spintronics devices. We have shown previously that the k-linear Rashba spin splitting present in two-dimensional (2D) electron systems can be utilized in a momentum-selective tunneling geometry to design a spin filter without using magnetic fields or ferromagnetic contacts. Motivated by the fact that spin–orbit effects are typically much stronger in 2D hole systems, we consider quantum wires formed by additional confinement of the lowest (heavy-hole) 2D valence subband. Its k ³-type Rashba term gives rise to a k-linear spin splitting for holes in the quantum wire. Implementation of the spin-filter design is then analogous to the electron case but, in the hole system, requires less momentum selectivity and should therefore be easier to realize.     

Charging Effects on Nuclear Spin Relaxation in Quantum Dots

We study the mechanism of nuclear spin relaxation in quantum dots due to the electron exchange with 2D gas. We show that the nuclear spin relaxation rate T ₁ ^–1 is dramatically affected by the Coulomb blockade (CB) and can be controlled by gate voltage. In the case of strong spin–orbit (SO) coupling the relaxation rate is maximal in the CB valleys whereas for the weak SO coupling the maximum of 1/T ₁ is near the CB peaks. The physical mechanism of nuclear spin relaxation rate at strong SO coupling is identified as Debye–Mandelstam–Leontovich–Pollak–Geballe relaxational mechanism.     

Spin Path Integrals, Berry Phase, and the Quantum Phase Transition in the Sub-Ohmic Spin-Boson Model

The quantum critical properties of the sub-Ohmic spin-1/2 spin-boson model and of the Bose-Fermi Kondo model have recently been discussed controversially. The role of the Berry phase in the breakdown of the quantum-to-classical mapping of quantum criticality in the spin-isotropic Bose-Fermi Kondo model has been discussed previously. In the present article, some of the subtleties underlying the functional integral representation of the spin-boson and related models with spin anisotropy are discussed. To this end, an introduction to spin coherent states and spin path integrals is presented with a focus on the spin-boson model. It is shown that, even for the Ising-anisotropic case as in the spin-boson model, the path integral in the continuum limit in the coherent state representation involves a Berry phase term. As a result, the effective action for the spin degrees of freedom does not assume the form of a Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson functional. The implications of the Berry-phase term for the quantum-critical behavior of the spin-boson model are discussed. The case of arbitrary spin S is also considered.     

Quantum Theory of Spin Wave Gap in Ultrathin Magnetic Films

A simple quantum model is presented for the spin wave energy gap in single-layer and thin magnetic films that include both the magnetic out-of-plane and in-plane anisotropies. The films are assumed to be under the influence of the out-of-plane direction of the applied magnetic field at zero temperature. The calculated equations present a nonzero spin wave gap at zero magnetic field which is strongly affected by anisotropies. The effects of the film thickness and the role of the applied field are also examined. We discuss the results in connection with experimental data reported for nanocrystalline amorphous CoFeB films with growth-induced anisotropy.