Polarimetry with Spins in the Solid State.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40331351.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01511 and PMC identifier 12164523.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The ability for optically active media to rotate the polarization of light is the basis of polarimetry, a prominent technique responsible for many breakthroughs in fields as varied as astronomy, medicine, and material science. Here, we recast the primary mechanism for spin readout in semiconductor-based quantum computers, Pauli spin-blockade (PSB), as the natural extension of polarimetry to the third dimension. We perform polarimetry with spins through a silicon quantum dot exchanging a hole with a boron acceptor, demonstrating the role of spin-orbit coupling in creating spin misalignment. Perfect spin alignment may be recovered by means of rotating the applied magnetic-field orientation. This work shows how spin misalignment sets a fundamental upper limit for the spin readout fidelity in quantum-computing systems based on PSB.