Breakdown of Pauli spin blockade by phonon irradiation in a GaAs double quantum dot

摘要

Recently single electron transistors and quantum dots have been used for demonstration of the thermodynamics in nanodevices. The previous experimental studies only utilized the charge degree of freedom of the electrons while no reports focus on the spin degree of freedom. Here we measured the electron dynamics in Pauli spin blockade of a GaAs double quantum dot with phonon irradiation. The spin-flip tunnel due to spin-orbit interaction breaks the spin blockade at thermal equilibrium. In contrast, we found the spin-flip tunnel is remarkably accelerated with irradiation of higher energy phonon than the energy separation between the ground and excited states. We suggest a novel mechanism of the charge transition intermediated by the excited states. Our results will pave the way to revel thermodynamic of spins in nanodevices.