Optical measurement of electron spins in quantum dots: Quantum Zeno effects

Abstract

We describe the effects of the quantum back action under continuous optical measurement of electron spins in quantum dots. We consider the system excitation by elliptically polarized light close to the trion resonance, which allows for the simultaneous spin orientation and measurement. We microscopically demonstrate that the nuclei-induced spin relaxation can be both suppressed and accelerated by the continuous spin measurement due to the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects, respectively. Our theoretical predictions can be directly compared with the future experimental results and straightforwardly generalized for the pump-probe experiments.