Physics – Condensed Matter – Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Scientific paper
2011-07-25
Will be published in Nature on 4 August 2011
Physics
Condensed Matter
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Submitted version including 11 pages, 3 figures and online supporting materials. Appeared on Nature Advance Online Publication
Scientific paper
10.1038/nature10314
Decoherence in Nature has become one of the most pressing problems in physics. Many applications, including quantum information processing, depend on understanding it; and fundamental theories going beyond quantum mechanics have been suggested [1-3], where the breakdown of quantum theory appears as an 'intrinsic decoherence', mimicking environmental decoherence [4]. Such theories cannot be tested until we have a handle on ordinary environmental decoherence processes. Here we show that the theory for insulating electronic spin systems can make accurate predictions for environmental decoherence in molecular-based quantum magnets [5]. Experimental understanding of decoherence in molecular magnets has been limited by short decoherence times, which make coherent spin manipulation extremely difficult [6-9]. Here we reduce the decoherence by applying a strong magnetic field. The theory predicts the contributions to the decoherence from phonons, nuclear spins, and intermolecular dipolar interactions, for a single crystal of the Fe8 molecular magnet. In experiments we find that the decoherence time varies strongly as a function of temperature and magnetic field. The theoretical predictions are fully verified experimentally - there are no other visible decoherence sources. Our investigation suggests that the decoherence time is ultimately limited by nuclear spins, and can be extended up to about 500 microseconds, by optimizing the temperature, magnetic field, and nuclear isotopic concentrations.
Beedle Christopher C.
Hendrickson David N.
Stamp Philip C. E.
Takahashi Saburo
Tol Johan van
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