{
  "id": "1502.05400",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2015-02-18T21:00:10.000Z",
  "updated": "2015-02-18T21:00:10.000Z",
  "title": "Quenching of dynamic nuclear polarization by spin-orbit coupling in GaAs quantum dots",
  "authors": [
    "John M. Nichol",
    "Shannon P. Harvey",
    "Michael D. Shulman",
    "Arijeet Pal",
    "Vladimir Umansky",
    "Emmanuel I. Rashba",
    "Bertrand I. Halperin",
    "Amir Yacoby"
  ],
  "comment": "5+12 pages, 9 figures",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.mes-hall"
  ],
  "abstract": "The central-spin problem, in which an electron spin interacts with a nuclear spin bath, is a widely studied model of quantum decoherence. Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) occurs in central spin systems when electronic angular momentum is transferred to nuclear spins and is exploited in spin-based quantum information processing for coherent electron and nuclear spin control. However, the mechanisms limiting DNP remain only partially understood. Here, we show that spin-orbit coupling quenches DNP in a GaAs double quantum dot, even though spin-orbit coupling in GaAs is weak. Using Landau-Zener sweeps, we measure the dependence of the electron spin-flip probability on the strength and direction of in-plane magnetic field, allowing us to distinguish effects of the spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions. To confirm our interpretation, we measure high-bandwidth correlations in the electron spin-flip probability and attain results consistent with a significant spin-orbit contribution. We observe that DNP is quenched when the spin-orbit component exceeds the hyperfine, in agreement with a theoretical model. Our results shed new light on the surprising competition between the spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions in central-spin systems.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2015-02-18T21:00:10.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "dynamic nuclear polarization",
      "gaas quantum dots",
      "spin-orbit coupling",
      "nuclear spin",
      "electron spin-flip probability"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "doi": "10.1038/ncomms8682",
      "journal": "Nature Communications",
      "year": 2015,
      "month": "Jul",
      "volume": 6,
      "pages": 7682
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 12,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2015NatCo...6E7682N"
    }
  }
}