Electron spin coherence in Si

Abstract

We discuss pulsed electron spin resonance measurements of electrons in Si and determine the spin coherence from the decay of the spin echo signals. Tightly bound donor electrons in isotopically enriched 28Si are found to have exceptionally long spin coherence. Placing the donors near a surface or interface is found to decrease the spin coherence time, but it is still in the range of milliseconds. Unbound two-dimensional electrons have shorter coherence times of a few microseconds, though still long compared to the Zeeman frequency or the typical time to manipulate a spin with microwave pulses. Longer spin coherence is expected in two-dimensional systems patterned into quantum dots, but relatively small dots will be required. Data from dots with a lithographic size of 400 nm do not yet show longer spin coherence. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.