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Linear Hyperfine Tuning of Donor Spins in Silicon Using Hydrostatic Strain

J. Mansir, P. Conti, Z. Zeng, J. J. Pla, P. Bertet, M. W. Swift, C. G. Van de Walle, M. L. W. Thewalt, B. Sklenard, Y. M. Niquet, and J. J. L. Morton
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 167701 – Published 20 April 2018
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Abstract

We experimentally study the coupling of group V donor spins in silicon to mechanical strain, and measure strain-induced frequency shifts that are linear in strain, in contrast to the quadratic dependence predicted by the valley repopulation model (VRM), and therefore orders of magnitude greater than that predicted by the VRM for small strains |ϵ|<105. Through both tight-binding and first principles calculations we find that these shifts arise from a linear tuning of the donor hyperfine interaction term by the hydrostatic component of strain and achieve semiquantitative agreement with the experimental values. Our results provide a framework for making quantitative predictions of donor spins in silicon nanostructures, such as those being used to develop silicon-based quantum processors and memories. The strong spin-strain coupling we measure (up to 150 GHz per strain, for Bi donors in Si) offers a method for donor spin tuning—shifting Bi donor electron spins by over a linewidth with a hydrostatic strain of order 106—as well as opportunities for coupling to mechanical resonators.

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  • Received 29 September 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.167701

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsQuantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

J. Mansir1, P. Conti1, Z. Zeng2, J. J. Pla3, P. Bertet4, M. W. Swift5, C. G. Van de Walle5, M. L. W. Thewalt6, B. Sklenard7, Y. M. Niquet2, and J. J. L. Morton1,8

  • 1London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL, 17-19 Gordon St, London WC1H 0AH, United Kingdom
  • 2Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, INAC-MEM, L_Sim, F-38000 Grenoble, France
  • 3School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
  • 4Quantronics Group, SPEC, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
  • 5Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-5050, USA
  • 6Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada
  • 7Université Grenoble Alpes & CEA, LETI, MINATEC Campus, F-38000 Grenoble, France
  • 8Dept of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL, London WC1E 7JE, United Kingdom

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Issue

Vol. 120, Iss. 16 — 20 April 2018

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