title: Theory of scanning tunneling microscopy measurement of single spin decoherence in a superconductor.
abstract: Localized spin states in conventional superconductors at low temperatures are expected to have a long decoherence time due to the strong suppression of spin relaxation channels. We propose a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiment allowing the direct measurement of the decoherence time of a single spin in a conventional superconductor. The experimental setup can be readily applied to general-purpose spin-polarized STM and to local spin relaxation spectroscopy. A possible extension of the setup to a quantum information processing scheme is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Royal Institute of Technology-SCFAB, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jurij
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smakov
authors.forename: Ivar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Balatsky