All-electrical control of single ion spins in a semiconductor

Abstract

We propose a method for all-electrical initialization, control and readout of the spin of single ions substituted into a semiconductor. Mn ions in GaAs form a natural example. In the ion's ground state the Mn core spin magnetic moment locks antiparallel to the spin and orbital magnetic moment of a bound valence hole from the GaAs host. Direct electrical manipulation of the ion spin is possible because electric fields manipulate the orbital wave function of the hole, and through the spin-orbit coupling the spin is reoriented as well. Coupling two or more ion spins can be achieved using electrical gates to control the size of the valence hole wave function near the semiconductor surface. This proposal for coherent manipulation of individual ionic spins and controlled coupling of ionic spins via electrical gates alone may find applications in extremely high density information storage and in scalable coherent or quantum information processing.