All-electric single electron spin initialization

TL;DR

The paper introduces a nanodevice that enables all-electrical initialization of a single electron spin in a semiconductor structure, independent of initial spin state and without external magnetic fields.

Contribution

It presents a novel nanodevice design and a sequence of electrical operations for reliable spin initialization in quantum computing applications.

Findings

Successful spin initialization demonstrated in the proposed device

Operations are all-electrical and do not depend on initial spin state

Device design is compatible with existing semiconductor technology

Abstract

We propose a nanodevice for single-electron spin initialization. It is based on a gated planar semiconductor heterostructure with a quantum well and with potentials generated by voltages applied to local gates. Initially we insert an electron with arbitrary spin into the nanodevice. Next we perform a sequence of spin manipulations, after which the spin is set in a desired direction (e.g., the growth direction). The operations are done all-electrically, do not require any external fields and do not depend on the initial spin direction.