Polarization of Nuclear Spins from the Conductance of Quantum Wire

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to measure nuclear spin polarization in quantum wires by analyzing conductance oscillations influenced by magnetic fields, spin-orbit interaction, and nuclear spin dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel conductance-based approach to determine nuclear spin polarization and its dynamics in quantum wires, incorporating effects of magnetic fields and spin-orbit coupling.

Findings

Conductance oscillations reveal nuclear spin polarization levels.

The method allows extraction of nuclear spin relaxation times.

External magnetic fields and spin-orbit interaction significantly influence conductance patterns.

Abstract

We devise an approach to measure the polarization of nuclear spins via conductance measurements. Specifically, we study the combined effect of external magnetic field, nuclear spin polarization, and Rashba spin-orbit interaction on the conductance of a quantum wire. Nonequilibrium nuclear spin polarization affects the electron energy spectrum making it time-dependent. Changes in the extremal points of the spectrum result in time-dependence of the conductance. The conductance oscillation pattern can be used to obtain information about the amplitude of the nuclear spin polarization and extract the characteristic time scales of the nuclear spin subsystem.