Tunneling Measurement of a Single Quantum Spin

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Abstract
Measurement of the tunneling current of spin-polarized electrons via a molecule with a localized spin provides information on the orientation of that spin. We show that a strong tunneling current due to the shot noise suppresses the spin dynamics, such as the spin precession in an external magnetic field, and the relaxation due to the environment (quantum Zeno effect). A weak tunneling current preserves the spin precession with the oscillatory component of the current of the same order as the noise. We propose an experiment to observe the Zeno effect in a tunneling system and describe how the tunneling current may be used to read a qubit represented by a single spin 1/2.