Inelastic spin relaxation and spin splitting s in lateral quantum dots are studied in the regime of strong in-plane magnetic field. Because of both the g-factor energy dependence and spin-orbit coupling, s demonstrates a substantial nonlinear magnetic field dependence similar to that observed by Hanson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 196802 (2003)]. It also varies with the in-plane orientation of the magnetic field due to crystalline anisotropy of the spin-orbit coupling. The spin relaxation rate is also anisotropic, the anisotropy increasing with the field. When the magnetic length is less than the "thickness" of the GaAs dot, the relaxation can be an order of magnitude faster for B||[100] than for B||[110].
Our prediction that inelastic spin relaxation and spin splitting in lateral GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots have a nonlinear magnetic field dependence and pronounced anisotropy (with respect to the in-plane orientation of a magnetic field) resulted in a collaboration with Marcus at Harvard. RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Physics