This thesis explores the spin dynamics of lateral quantum dots in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, including the first demonstration of a geometry capable of measuring mesoscopic spin currents. The term “quantum dot” as used in this thesis refers to partiallyconfined regions connected to two leads by quantum point contacts. Because the quantum dots investigated in these experiments are gate-tunabl...

Linear chains of spins acting as quantum wires are a promising approach for achieving scalable quantum information processors. Nuclear spins in apatite crystals provide an ideal test bed for the experimental study of quantum information transport, as they closely emulate a one-dimensional spin chain, while magnetic resonance techniques can be used to drive the spin chain dynamics and probe the ...

Spintronics devices rely on spin-dependent transport behavior evoked by the presence of spin-polarized electrons. Transport through nanostructures, on the other hand, is dominated by strong Coulomb interaction. We study a model system in the intersection of both fields, a quantum dot attached to ferromagnetic leads. The combination of spin-polarization in the leads and strong Coulomb interactio...

We investigate spin effects in transport across fully interacting, finite size graphene armchair nanoribbons (ACNs) contacted to collinearly spin-polarized leads. In such systems, the presence of short ranged Coulomb interaction between bulk states and states localized at the ribbon ends leads to novel spin-dependent phenomena. Specifically, the total spin of the low energy many-body states is ...

An important consequence of the discovery of giant magnetoresistance in metallic magnetic multilayers is a broad interest in spin dependent effects in electronic transport through magnetic nanostructures. An example of such systems are tunnel junctions – single-barrier planar junctions or more complex ones. In this review we present and discuss recent theoretical results on electron and spin tr...

We derive an effectively three-dimensional relativistic spin precession formalism. The formalism is applicable to any spacetime where an arbitrary timelike reference congruence of worldlines is specified. We employ what we call a stopped spin vector which is the spin vector that we would get if we momentarily make a pure boost of the spin vector to stop it relative to the congruence. Starting f...

Spin-dependent Seebeck effect (SDSE) is one of hot topics in spin caloritronics, which examine the relationships between spin and heat transport in materials. Meanwhile, it is still a huge challenge to obtain thermally induced spin current nearly without thermal electron current. Here, we construct a hydrogen-terminated zigzag silicene nanoribbon heterojunction, and find that by applying a temp...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit various excellent properties, such as ballistic transport. However, their electrically induced charge carriers and the relation between their spin states and the ballistic transport have not yet been microscopically investigated because of experimental difficulties. Here we show an electron spin resonance (ESR) study of semiconducting single-walled CNT thin films...