Pulsed-gate measurements of the singlet-triplet relaxation time in a two-electron double quantum dot

A pulsed-gate technique with charge sensing is used to measure the singlet-triplet relaxation time for nearly-degenerate spin states in a two-electron double quantum dot. Transitions from the (1,1) charge occupancy state to the (0,2) state, measured as a function of pulse cycle duration and magnetic field, allow the (1,1) singlet-triplet relaxation time (~70 microseconds) and the (0,2) singlet-triplet splitting to be measured. The use of charge sensing rather than current measurement allows long relaxation times to be readily probed.