Observation of a two-dimensional spin-lattice in non-magnetic semiconductor heterostructures

Abstract

Tunable magnetic interactions in high-mobility nonmagnetic semiconductor heterostructures are centrally important to spin-based quantum technologies. Conventionally, this requires incorporation of "magnetic impurities" within the two-dimensional (2D) electron layer of the heterostructures, which is achieved either by doping with ferromagnetic atoms, or by electrostatically printing artificial atoms or quantum dots. Here we report experimental evidence of a third, and intrinsic, source of localized spins in high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, which are clearly observed in the limit of large setback distance (=80 nm) in modulation doping. Local nonequilibrium transport spectroscopy in these systems reveals existence of multiple spins, which are located in a quasi-regular manner in the 2D Fermi sea, and mutually interact at temperatures below 100 milliKelvin via the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) indirect exchange. The presence of such a spin-array, whose microscopic origin appears to be disorder-bound, simulates a 2D lattice-Kondo system with gate-tunable energy scales.