Charge decoherence in laterally coupled quantum dots due to electron-phonon interactions

We investigate electron charge decoherence in a laterally coupled single-electron semiconductor double quantum dot through electron-phonon interaction. We analytically and numerically evaluate the relaxation and dephasing rates due to electron coupling to both acoustic and optical phonons, and explore the system parameter space in terms of interdot distance, strength of single-dot confinement, and interdot coupling strength. Our numerical results show that the electron scattering rates are strongly dependent on the strength of the electron confinement and the size of the system. In addition, although the most dominant factor that determines the charge decoherence rate is the energy splitting between the charge qubit states, the details of the double dot configuration are also very important.