Decoherence in Quantum Magnets: Theory and Experiment on T$_{2}$

ORAL

Abstract

The individual properties of molecular magnets are controlled by chemistry rather than nanoengineering, and are highly tunable. This makes them ideal candidates for solid-state qubits. However decoherence in many solid-state systems is anomalously high, and their advantages cannot be exploited until decoherence is understood and suppressed. In molecular magnets decoherence is caused by coupling to the nuclear spin bath, to phonons, and to each other via dipole-dipole and exchange interactions. Here we study decoherence in 2 different crystals of Fe8 nanomolecules, in several field orientations, both theoretically and experimentally. The experimental results for the decoherence time T$_{2}$ agree with the existing theory (Morello et al., Phys Rev Lett 97, 207206 (2006)). To our knowledge this is the first time that experimental decoherence rates agree with theory in magnetic systems.

Authors

  • Igor Tupitsyn

    Pacific Institute of Theoretical Physics, UBC, Canada

  • Philip Stamp

    Department of Physics and Astronomy, UBC, Canada, University of British Columbia

  • Susumu Takahashi

    University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

  • Mark Sherwin

    University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

  • Johan van Tol

    Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

  • Chris Beedle

    University of California, San Diego, USA, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSD, UC San Diego

  • David Hendrickson

    University of California, San Diego, USA, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSD, UC San Diego