Decoherence of a localized electron spin in a solid state material (the “central spin” problem) at low temperature is believed to be dominated by interactions with nuclear spins in the lattice. This decoherence is partially suppressed through the application of a large magnetic field that splits the energy levels of the electron spin and prevents depolarization. However, the dephasing decoherence resulting from a dynamical nuclear spin bath cannot be removed in this way. Fluctuations of the nuclear field lead to an uncertainty of the electron’s precessional frequency in a process known as spectral diffusion. This paper considers the effect of the electron’s wavefunction shape on spectral diffusion and provides wavefunction dependent decoherence time formulas for a free induction decay as well as spin echoes and concatenated dynamical decoupling schemes for enhancing coherence. We also discuss a dephasing of a qubit encoded in singlet-triplet states of a double quantum dot. A central theoretical result of this work is the development of a continuum approximation for the spectral diffusion problem which we have applied to GaAs and InAs materials specifically.

• Received 20 December 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.77.165319