Hyperfine-mediated transport in a one-dimensional channel

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent research on hyperfine-mediated transport in one-dimensional channels, focusing on nuclear spin dynamics, electrical detection of NMR, and applications in quantum transport and strain sensing.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of how hyperfine interactions influence transport in 1D channels and introduces new methods for nuclear spin detection and strain measurement.

Findings

Spin-polarized edge currents can generate and detect nuclear spins.

Electrical NMR detection at low magnetic fields reveals insights into fractional conductance.

Nuclear quadrupole interactions enable strain sensing in semiconductor channels.

Abstract

We survey some recent accumulated body of works on hyperfine-mediated transport in a confined one-dimensional channel, realized typically by electrostatic gating. Our review begins with how the spin-polarized edge current can be used as a means to dynamically generate and detect an ensemble of nuclear spins in the channel. We show how the transmission of spin-polarized edge in the presence of nuclear polarization could provide a convenient way to explain various NMR lineshapes observed in experiments. We discuss recent attempt to electrically detecting NMR at moderate to low magnetic fields that would particularly be helpful to address some fundamental physics problems in quantum transport such as the microscopic nature of fractional conductance developed below the last integer plateau. For a more applied-oriented, the developed NMR can be turned to probe an ultra-low level strain modulation in the channel owing to differential thermal contraction between metal gates and a semiconductor via nuclear quadrupole interaction.