Ultra-deep optical cooling of coupled nuclear spin-spin and quadrupole reservoirs in a GaAs/(Al,Ga)As quantum well

The physics of interacting nuclear spins in solids is well interpreted within the nuclear spin temperature concept. A common approach to cooling the nuclear spin system is adiabatic demagnetization of the initial, optically created, nuclear spin polarization. Here, the selective cooling of 75As spins by optical pumping followed by adiabatic demagnetization in the rotating frame is realized in a nominally undoped GaAs/(Al,Ga)As quantum well. The lowest nuclear spin temperature achieved is 0.54 μK. The rotation of 6 kG strong Overhauser field at the 75As Larmor frequency of 5.5 MHz is evidenced by the dynamic Hanle effect. Despite the presence of the quadrupole induced nuclear spin splitting, it is shown that the rotating 75As magnetization is uniquely determined by the spin temperature of coupled spin-spin and quadrupole reservoirs. The dependence of heat capacity of these reservoirs on the external magnetic field direction with respect to crystal and structure axes is investigated.

Frustrated magnet for adiabatic demagnetization cooling to milli-Kelvin temperatures

Generation of very low temperatures has been crucially important for applications and fundamental research, as low-temperature quantum coherence enables operation of quantum computers and formation of exotic quantum states, such as superfluidity and superconductivity. One of the major techniques to reach milli-Kelvin temperatures is adiabatic demagnetization refrigeration. This method uses almost non-interacting magnetic moments of paramagnetic salts where large distances suppress interactions between the moments. The large spatial separations are facilitated by water molecules, with a drawback of reduced stability of the material. Here, we show that the water-free frustrated magnet KBaYb(BO3)2 can be ideal for refrigeration, achieving at least 22 mK. Compared to conventional refrigerants, KBaYb(BO3)2 does not degrade even under high temperatures and ultra-high vacuum. Further, its magnetic frustration and structural randomness enable cooling to temperatures several times lower than the energy scale of magnetic interactions, which is the main limiting factor for the base temperature of conventional refrigerants.

Effect of Single-Ion Anisotropy on Magnetocaloric Properties of Frustrated Spin-s Ising Nanoclusters

Effects of a single-ion anisotropy on magnetocaloric properties of selected spin-s≥1 antiferromagnetic Ising clusters with frustration-inducing triangular geometry are studied by exact enumeration. It is found that inclusion of the single-ion anisotropy parameter D can result in a much more complex ground-state behavior, which is also reflected in a magnetocaloric effect (MCE) at finite temperatures. For negative D (easy-plane anisotropy) with increasing s, the ground-state magnetization as a function of the external field gradually shows increasing number of plateaus of various heights. Except for the cases of integer s with D<D0≤0, the first magnetization plateau is of non-zero height. This property facilitates an enhanced MCE in the adiabatic demagnetization process in the form of an abrupt decrease in temperature as the magnetic field vanishes to zero. The cooling rate can be considerably enhanced in the systems with larger s and D>0 (easy-axis anisotropy), albeit its dependence on these parameters is strongly dependent on the cluster geometry. From the studied systems more favorable conditions for observing a giant MCE were found in the 2CS cluster, consisting of two corner-sharing tetrahedra, the experimental realization of which could be technologically used for efficient refrigeration to ultra-low temperatures.