Spin pumping through quantum dots

A substantial aspect of semiconductor spintronics is the controlled generation and manipulation of spin-polarized carriers in semiconductors. Both in the context of nanoscopic spintronic devices and quantum computation, one may go down to co- herently manipulate a few or even individual spins. The main objective of the present project is to theoretically analyze schemes for pumping spin through quan- tum dots. The appeal of such a scheme lies in the possibility to inject in a controlled way individual spins into a semiconductor, and manipulating them coherently. An important role will be played by interaction effects in the quantum dot. This in- cludes strong Coulomb interaction, that inevitably effects electronic transport in nanoscopic devices, as well as interactions with localized spins in the quantum dot. We plan to develop and apply theoretical tools for describing spin pumping through quantum dots and to find suitable pumping schemes for spintronic applications.