Influence of nuclear spins on electron spin coherence in isolated, p-doped tin clusters

Abstract

Magnetic double deflection experiments reveal that nuclear spins diminish electron spin coherence in isolated AlSn₁₂ clusters. A temperature-dependent fraction of the endohedral cage clusters show superatomic response in Stern–Gerlach experiments which allows one to detect spin flips under controlled conditions in a double deflection arrangement. The concentration of nuclear spins in the tin cage is varied by using isotopically enriched tin samples. Hyperfine interaction, nuclear spin statistics and spin dynamics are discussed in detail. It is demonstrated that state-interference in the multistate Landau–Zener system AlSn₁₂ explains why the spin decoherence is significantly increased when one or two nuclear spins are already present in the cluster, while the spin coherence no longer changes significantly with the addition of further nuclear spins.