Tutorial 9. Quantum Spintronics

ANCILLARYEVENT · MAR-9T · ID: MAR-9T

Quantum spintronics is an emerging field of spin coherence and spin correlations, from low temperature to room temperature, and how they affect a wide range of properties, including spin dynamics and light emission from color centers in solids, organic magnetism, spin-dependent transport in tunnel junctions, biological sensing of magnetic fields and key components of quantum information science. By relying on spin coherence and spin correlations, room-temperature quantum spintronic systems can be much more sensitive to external perturbations than thermal equilibrium sensors.  Applications include sensing of magnetic fields in biological systems (e.g. color centers in diamond and other wide-band-gap materials), control of light emission intensity from organic materials, spin injection, spin dynamics, and coherent optical interactions with single spins (color-center photonics). Highly sensitive spin and magnetic systems feature prominently in proposals for very low power electronic logic, especially those relying on low-damping magnetic materials and heterostructures. Spin-photon interfaces at low temperatures allow the transduction of quantum information from optical to microwave frequencies, an essential element for connecting photonic and superconducting quantum information. And quantumcoherent spin systems may form the basis for spin-based qubits in next-generation quantum information processors. The tutorial will provide an introduction to the materials and operating regimes that tend to exhibit exceptional spin coherence and spin correlations, the methods of calculating and measuring these properties, the areas of application and the critical open questions in the field. 

Topics 

• Theory:  Spin dynamics and transport (density matrix and stochastic Liouville equations), colorcenter properties (density functional theory, symmetry analyses), analytic to numerical. These will include current systems (e.g. light-element spin centers in wide-gap semiconductors) and those of great future promise (e.g. rare-earth spin centers in solids/molecules) 
• Growth and Fabrication: Organic spin-coherent molecules and magnets, low-loss ferrimagnetic materials, diamond and silicon carbide growth and color center control, color-center photonics including the integration of spin centers into integrated photonic frameworks, growth of novel materials such as rare-earth host oxides. 
• Characterization: Optical and coherent RF probes of spin dynamics in color centers, organic magnetic materials, and photonic devices and their applications to quantum transduction and quantum information processing.