Team

Photonics and spin coherence

Scientific activity

Understanding and controlling the relaxation and decoherence dynamics of excitons and spins in semiconductor nanostructures are two of the team’s key objectives. The nanostructures studied are of diverse natures and realize model quantum systems, some of which involve the use of materials newly shaped on the nanometric scale, possibly ‘bio-inspired’, and whose properties are largely unexplored. Most of the functionalities and applications targeted here, through the control of electronic processes, are in the field of quantum technologies (with qubit generation, manipulation, control of excitonic coherent transport, etc.). In the systems under consideration, the coupling of elementary excitations to lattice vibrations, or the influence of the electrostatic environment, is the source of effects that are most often deleterious (non-radiative effects, thermalization, decoherence, etc.). The studies carried out therefore seek to determine under what conditions the effects of coupling to the environment can be reduced, or even exploited, in order to preserve the quantum effects of interest. The development of efficient “interfaces” (for the preparation, manipulation and reading of states) is a complementary facet, and is the subject of specific developments with a strong nanophotonics component.

© Thierry Barisien, 2022.

Figure: Time-resolved Faraday rotation experiment (2K – 5T) to study spin relaxation and coherence in semiconductor nanostructures.