Coherent nonlinear low-frequency Landau–Zener tunneling induced by magnetic control of a spin qubit in a quantum wire

Abstract

This paper presents nonlinear Landau–Zener (LZ) tunneling of an electron spin in an accelerating optical parabolic potential, manifested in a heterostructure quantum wire subjected to a periodic magnetic field comprising a spike and a homogeneous part. In this context, driving the two states of a pure nonlinear two-level quantum bit (qubit) system through an avoided level crossing can result in nontrivial dynamics, especially with and without considering a parabolic confinement potential characterized by a curvature confinement potential. We report two striking nonadiabatic and adiabatic scenarios in low modulation frequency limit which appear when such strength modulation occurs. Firstly, the changes of the amplitude of the driving field without considering a parabolic confinement potential act as a perturbation which mixes the spin states. Here, the dynamical evolution of the tunneling probabilities of the nonadiabatic populations under investigation is analyzed. Secondly, for strong fields and strong dependence of a parabolic confinement potential, the two diabatic states do not cross but present anti-crossing phenomenon as the time tends to infinity, describing an adiabatic transition. However, if the field strength in a wire is weak enough, the level separation of a qubit state switches abruptly around the crossing point, and LZ tunneling applies to the whole dynamical range, from adiabatic to fully nonadiabatic crossing. Locally, the tunneling process can be seen as a two-level system (TLS) undergoing a Rabi oscillation. These results open new prospects for the use of quantum interferences in spin–based devices.