Direct measurement of spin-flip rates in single-electron tunneling

Abstract

Spin-flips are one of the limiting factors for spin-based information processing. We demonstrate a transport approach for determining the spin-flip rates of a self-assembled InAs double quantum dot occupied by a single electron. In such devices, different Land\'e factors lead to an inhomogeneous Zeeman splitting, so that the two spin channels can never be at resonance simultaneously, leading to a spin blockade at low temperatures. This blockade is analyzed in terms of spin flips for different temperatures and magnetic fields. Our results are in good agreement with a quantum master equation that combines the dot-lead couplings with ohmic dissipation stemming from spin-flip cotunneling.