Ultralong spin lifetimes in one-dimensional semiconductor nanowires

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that electrons in one-dimensional semiconductor nanowires exhibit ultralong spin lifetimes, reaching over 200 nanoseconds, due to enhanced confinement effects that suppress spin relaxation mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of significantly increased spin lifetimes in 1D nanowires, highlighting their potential for long-distance spin information transport.

Findings

Spin relaxation time increases with electron confinement

Observed spin lifetimes exceed 200 ns

Robustness against major relaxation mechanisms

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate ultralong spin lifetimes of electrons in the one-dimensional (1D) quantum limit of semiconductor nanowires. Optically probing single wires of different diameters reveals an increase in the spin relaxation time by orders of magnitude as the electrons become increasingly confined until only a single 1D subband is populated. We find the observed spin lifetimes of more than $200\,\textrm{ns}$ to result from the robustness of 1D electrons against major spin relaxation mechanisms, highlighting the promising potential of these wires for long-range transport of coherent spin information.