Optical spin control and coherence properties of acceptor bound holes in strained GaAs

Hole spins in semiconductors are a potential qubit alternative to electron spins. In nuclear-spin-rich host crystals like GaAs, the hyperfine interaction of hole spins with nuclei is considerably weaker than that for electrons, leading to potentially longer dephasing times. Here we demonstrate optical pumping and coherent population trapping for acceptor-bound holes in a strained GaAs epitaxial layer. We find $\ensuremath{\mu}\text{s}$-scale longitudinal spin relaxation time ${T}₁$ and an inhomogeneous dephasing time ${T}₂^*$ of $\ensuremath{\sim}7$ ns. We attribute the spin relaxation mechanism to the combined effect of a hole-phonon interaction through the deformation potentials, and heavy-hole--light-hole mixing in an in-plane magnetic field. We attribute the short ${T}₂^*$ to $g$-factor broadening due to strain inhomogeneity. ${T}₁$ and ${T}₂^*$ are calculated based on these mechanisms and compared with the experimental results. While the hyperfine-mediated decoherence is mitigated, our results highlight the important contribution of strain to relaxation and dephasing of acceptor-bound hole spins.