Inhomogeneous dynamic nuclear polarization and suppression of electron-polarization decay in a quantum dot

TL;DR

This study explores how frequent electron spin injections induce highly inhomogeneous nuclear polarization in quantum dots, significantly prolonging electron polarization decay times even at low polarization levels.

Contribution

It demonstrates that inhomogeneous nuclear polarization can be achieved through frequent injections, suppressing nuclear interactions and extending electron polarization lifetime.

Findings

Nuclear polarization is proportional to the square of hyperfine interaction constants.

Electron polarization decay time can be extended 100 times at low nuclear polarization.

Inhomogeneous nuclear spins serve as an effective initial state for prolonging electron coherence.

Abstract

We investigate the dynamic nuclear polarization process by frequently injecting polarized electron spins into a quantum dot. Due to the suppression of the direct dipolar and indirect electron-mediated nuclear spin interactions, by the frequently injected electron spins, the analytical predictions under the independent spin approximation agree well with quantum numerical simulations. Our results show that the acquired nuclear polarization is highly inhomogeneous, proportional to the square of the local electron-nuclear hyperfine interaction constant, if the injection frequency is high. Utilizing the inhomogeneously polarized nuclear spins as an initial state, we further show that the electron-polarization decay time can be extended 100 times even at a relatively low nuclear polarization (<20%), without much suppression of the fluctuation of the Overhauser field. Our results lay the foundation for future investigations of the effect of DNP in more complex spin systems, such as double quantum dots and nitrogen vacancy centers in diamonds.