Photo-assisted spin transport in double quantum dots with spin–orbit interaction

Abstract

We investigate the effect of spin–orbit interaction on the intra- and interdot particle dynamics of a double quantum dot (QD) under ac electric fields. The former is modeled as an effective ac magnetic field that produces electric-dipole spin resonance transitions, while the latter is introduced via spin-flip tunneling amplitudes. We observe the appearance of non-trivial spin-polarized dark states (DSs), arising from an ac-induced interference between photo-assisted spin-conserving and spin-flip tunneling processes. These DSs can be employed to precisely measure the spin–orbit coupling in QD systems. Furthermore, we show that the interplay between photo-assisted transitions and spin-flip tunneling enables the system to operate as a highly tunable spin filter. Finally, we investigate the operation of the system as a resonant flopping-mode qubit for arbitrary ac voltage amplitudes, allowing for high tunability and enhanced qubit control possibilities.

Keywords

• semiconductor quantum dots
• spin–orbit coupling
• quantum transport
• spin qubits
• dark states
• ac-driving dynamics and transport