Effect of strain on hyperfine-induced hole-spin decoherence in quantum dots

We theoretically consider the effect of strain on the spin dynamics of a single heavy hole (HH) confined to a self-assembled quantum dot and interacting with the surrounding nuclei via hyperfine interaction. Confinement and strain hybridize the HH states, which show an exponential decay for a narrowed nuclear spin bath. For different strain configurations within the dot, the dependence of the spin decoherence time T ₂ on external parameters is shifted and the nonmonotonic dependence of the peak is altered. Application of external strain yields considerable shifts in the dependence of T ₂ on external parameters. We find that external strain affects mostly the effective hyperfine coupling strength of the conduction band (CB), indicating that the CB admixture of the hybridized HH states plays a crucial role in the sensitivity of T ₂ on strain.