Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2014) 129: 86
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2014-14086-2

Regular Article

Controlling hole spins in quantum dots and wells

¹ Beijing Computational Science Research Center, 100084, Beijing, China
² Department of Physics, McGill University, H3A 2T8, Montréal, Québec, Canada

^* e-mail: coish@physics.mcgill.ca

Received: 5 February 2014
Accepted: 27 March 2014
Published online: 20 May 2014

Abstract

We review recent theoretical results for hole spins influenced by spin-orbit coupling and Coulomb interaction in two-dimensional quantum wells as well as the decoherence of single hole spins in quantum dots due to hyperfine interaction with surrounding nuclear spins. After reviewing the different forms of spin-orbit coupling that are relevant for electrons and heavy holes in III-V semiconductor quantum wells, we illustrate the combined effect of spin-orbit coupling and Coulomb interactions for hole systems on spin-dependent quasiparticle group velocities. We further analyze spin-echo decay for a single hole spin in a nuclear-spin bath, demonstrating that this decoherence source can be controlled in these systems by entering a motional-averaging regime. Throughout this review, we emphasize physical effects that are unique to hole spins (rather than electrons) in nanoscale systems.