Nuclear Spins of Ionized Phosphorus Donors in Silicon

Abstract

We demonstrate the coherent control and electrical readout of ionized phosphorus donor nuclear spins in (nat)Si. By combining time-programed optical excitation with coherent electron spin manipulation, we selectively ionize the donors depending on their nuclear spin state, exploiting a spin-dependent recombination process at the Si/SiO(2) interface, and find a nuclear spin coherence time of 18 ms for the ionized donors. The presented technique allows for spectroscopy of ionized-donor nuclear spins and enhances the sensitivity of electron nuclear double resonance to a level of 3000 nuclear spins.