Spin state tomography of optically injected electrons in a semiconductor

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 457; no. 7230; pp. 702 - 705
• Main Authors: Rikitake, Yoshiaki, Edamatsu, Keiichi, Imamura, Hiroshi, Mitsumori, Yasuyoshi, Kosaka, Hideo, Inagaki, Takahiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.02.2009; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Band structure; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Control; Electron spin; Electron states and collective excitations in thin films, multilayers, quantum wells, mesoscopic and nanoscale systems; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electrons; Exact sciences and technology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information technology; letter; Light; Magnetic fields; Measurement; Methods; multidisciplinary; Optics; Physics; Quantum computing; Quantum dots; Quantum wells; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Semiconductors; Tomography; Japan; Kerr effect; Spin dynamics; Free induction; Semiconductor materials; Quantum wells; Quantum coherence; Measuring methods; Three-level systems; Tomography; Spin manipulation; Spin state; Charge carrier injection
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature07729

Spin is a fundamental property of electrons, with an important role in information storage. For spin-based quantum information technology, preparation and read-out of the electron spin state are essential functions. Coherence of the spin state is a manifestation of its quantum nature, so both the preparation and read-out should be spin-coherent. However, the traditional spin measurement technique based on Kerr rotation, which measures spin population using the rotation of the reflected light polarization that is due to the magneto-optical Kerr effect, requires an extra step of spin manipulation or precession to infer the spin coherence. Here we describe a technique that generalizes the traditional Kerr rotation approach to enable us to measure the electron spin coherence directly without needing to manipulate the spin dynamics, which allows for a spin projection measurement on an arbitrary set of basis states. Because this technique enables spin state tomography, we call it tomographic Kerr rotation. We demonstrate that the polarization coherence of light is transferred to the spin coherence of electrons, and confirm this by applying the tomographic Kerr rotation method to semiconductor quantum wells with precessing and non-precessing electrons. Spin state transfer and tomography offers a tool for performing basis-independent preparation and read-out of a spin quantum state in a solid.