  The spin of a confined electron, when oriented originally in some direction,
will lose memory of that orientation after some time. Physical mechanisms
leading to this relaxation of spin memory typically involve either coupling of
the electron spin to its orbital motion or to nuclear spins. Relaxation of
confined electron spin has been previously measured only for Zeeman or exchange
split spin states, where spin-orbit effects dominate relaxation, while spin
flips due to nuclei have been observed in optical spectroscopy studies. Using
an isolated GaAs double quantum dot defined by electrostatic gates and direct
time domain measurements, we investigate in detail spin relaxation for
arbitrary splitting of spin states. Results demonstrate that electron spin
flips are dominated by nuclear interactions and are slowed by several orders of
magnitude when a magnetic field of a few millitesla is applied. These results
have significant implications for spin-based information processing.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics