Probing a single nuclear spin in a silicon single electron transistor

We study single electron transport across a single Bi dopant in a silicon nanotransistor to assess how the strong hyperfine coupling with the Bi nuclear spin I = 9/2 affects the transport characteristics of the device. In the sequential tunneling regime we find that at, temperatures in the range of 100 mK, dI/dV curves reflect the zero field hyperfine splitting as well as its evolution under an applied magnetic field. Our non-equilibrium quantum simulations show that nuclear spins can be partially polarized parallel or antiparallel to the electronic spin just tuning the applied bias.

This work has been financially supported by MECSpain (Grant Nos. FIS2010-21883-C02-01, FIS2009-08744, and CONSOLIDER CSD2007-0010) as well as Generalitat Valenciana, Grant Prometeo 2012-11.