Real-time monitoring of L\'evy flights in a single quantum system

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates theoretically and through simulations that a single quantum dot system can exhibit Le9vy flights, characterized by power-law waiting times between nuclear spin flips, observable via photon emission timing.

Contribution

It provides the first theoretical analysis and simulation evidence of Le9vy flights in a single quantum system, specifically in a driven quantum dot environment.

Findings

Long waiting times follow a power-law distribution with exponent -3/2.

The Le9vy flight behavior can be observed through photon emission timing.

Nuclear quadrupole coupling effects can be mitigated by magnetic field adjustments or spin echo.

Abstract

L\'evy flights are random walks where the dynamics is dominated by rare events. Even though they have been studied in vastly different physical systems, their observation in a single quantum system has remained elusive. Here we analyze a periodically driven open central spin system and demonstrate theoretically that the dynamics of the spin environment exhibits L\'evy flights. For the particular realization in a single-electron charged quantum dot driven by periodic resonant laser pulses, we use Monte Carlo simulations to confirm that the long waiting times between successive nuclear spin flip events are governed by a power-law distribution; the corresponding exponent $\eta =-3/2$ can be directly measured in real-time by observing the waiting time distribution of successive photon emission events. Remarkably, the dominant intrinsic limitation of the scheme arising from nuclear quadrupole coupling can be minimized by adjusting the magnetic field or by implementing spin echo.