arXiv subjects

Łukasz Cywiński

Publications and source records attributed to Łukasz Cywiński.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Environmental noise spectroscopy with qubits subjected to dynamical decoupling

A qubit subjected to pure dephasing due to classical Gaussian noise can be turned into a spectrometer of this noise by utilizing its readout under properly chosen dynamical decoupling (DD) sequences to reconstruct the power spectral density of the noise. We review the theory behind this DD-based noise spectroscopy technique, paying special attention to issues that arise when the environmental noise is non-Gaussian and/or it has truly quantum properties. While we focus on the theoretical basis of the method, we connect the discussed concepts with specific experiments and provide an overview of environmental noise models relevant for solid-state based qubits, including quantum-dot based spin qubits, superconducting qubits, and NV centers in diamond.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Spectrum of the Nuclear Environment for GaAs Spin Qubits

Using a singlet-triplet spin qubit as a sensitive spectrometer of the GaAs nuclear spin bath, we demonstrate that the spectrum of Overhauser noise agrees with a classical spin diffusion model over six orders of magnitude in frequency, from 1 mHz to 1 kHz, is flat below 10 mHz, and falls as $1/f^2$ for frequency $f \! \gtrsim \! 1$ Hz. Increasing the applied magnetic field from 0.1 T to 0.75 T suppresses electron-mediated spin diffusion, which decreases spectral content in the $1/f^2$ region and lowers the saturation frequency, each by an order of magnitude, consistent with a numerical model. Spectral content at megahertz frequencies is accessed using dynamical decoupling, which shows a crossover from the few-pulse regime ($\lesssim \! 16$ $π$-pulses), where transverse Overhauser fluctuations dominate dephasing, to the many-pulse regime ($\gtrsim \! 32$ $π$-pulses), where longitudinal Overhauser fluctuations with a $1/f$ spectrum dominate.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Conductance oscillations in quantum point contacts of InAs/GaSb heterostructures

We study quantum point contacts in two-dimensional topological insulators by means of quantum transport simulations for InAs/GaSb heterostructures and HgTe/(Hg,Cd)Te quantum wells. In InAs/GaSb, the density of edge states shows an oscillatory decay as a function of the distance to the edge. This is in contrast to the behavior of the edge states in HgTe quantum wells, which decay into the bulk in a simple exponential manner. The difference between the two materials is brought about by spatial separation of electrons and holes in InAs/GaSb, which affects the magnitudes of the parameters describing the particle-hole asymmetry and the strength of intersubband coupling within the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model. We show that the character of the wave function decay impacts directly the dependence of the point contact conductance on the constriction width and the Fermi energy, which can be verified experimentally and serve to determine accurately the values of relevant parameters. In the case of InAs/GaSb heterostructures the conductance magnitude oscillates as a function of the constriction width following the oscillations of the edge state penetration, whereas in HgTe/(Hg,Cd)Te quantum wells a single switching from transmitting to reflecting contact is predicted.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

The relation between the quantum discord and quantum teleportation: the physical interpretation of the transition point between different quantum discord decay regimes

We study quantum teleportation via Bell-diagonal mixed states of two qubits in the context of the intrinsic properties of the quantum discord. We show that when the quantum-correlated state of the two qubits is used for quantum teleportation the character of the teleportation efficiency changes substantially depending on the Bell-diagonal-state parameters, which can be seen when the worst-case-scenario or best-case-scenario fidelity is studied. Depending on the parameter range, one of two types of single qubit states is hardest/easiest to teleport. The transition between these two parameter ranges coincides exactly with the transition between the range of classical correlation decay and quantum correlation decay characteristic for the evolution of the quantum discord. The correspondence provides a physical interpretation for the prominent feature of the decay of the quantum discord.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Characterization and measurement of qubit-environment entanglement generation during pure dephasing

We consider the coupling of a qubit in a pure state to an environment in an arbitrary state, and characterize the possibility of qubit-environment entanglement generation during the evolution of the joint system, that leads to pure dephasing of the qubit. We give a simple necessary and sufficient condition on the initial density matrix of the environment together with the properties of the interaction, for appearance of qubit-environment entanglement. Any entanglement created turns out to be detectable by the Peres-Horodecki criterion. Furthermore, we show that for a large family of initial environmental states, the appearance of nonzero entanglement with the environment is necessarily accompanied by a change in the state of the environment (i.e. by the back-action of the qubit).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Spectroscopy of cross-correlations of environmental noises with two qubits

A single qubit driven by an appropriate sequence of control pulses can serve as a spectrometer of local noise affecting its energy splitting. We show that by driving and observing two spatially separated qubits, it is possible to reconstruct the spectrum of cross-correlations of noises acting at various locations. When the qubits are driven by the same sequence of pulses, real part of cross-correlation spectrum can be reconstructed, while applying two distinct sequence to the two qubits allows for reconstruction of imaginary part of this spectrum. The latter quantity contains information on either causal correlations between environmental dynamics at distinct locations, or on the occurrence of propagation of noisy signals through the environment. We illustrate the former case by modeling the noise spectroscopy protocol for qubits coupled to correlated two-level systems. While entanglement between the qubits is not necessary, its presence enhances the signal from which the spectroscopic information is reconstructed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Dynamics of entanglement of two electron spins interacting with nuclear spin baths in quantum dots

We study the dynamics of entanglement of two electron spins in two quantum dots, in which each electron is interacting with its nuclear spin environment. Focusing on the case of uncoupled dots, and starting from either Bell or Werner states of two qubits, we calculate the decay of entanglement due to the hyperfine interaction with the nuclei. We mostly focus on the regime of magnetic fields in which the bath-induced electron spin flips play a role, for example their presence leads to the appearance of entanglement sudden death at finite time for two qubits initialized in a Bell state. For these fields the intrabath dipolar interactions and spatial inhomogeneity of hyperfine couplings are irrelevant on the time scale of coherence (and entanglement) decay, and most of the presented calculations are performed using the uniform-coupling approximation to the exact hyperfine Hamiltonian. We provide a comprehensive overview of entanglement decay in this regime, considering both free evolution of the qubits, and an echo protocol with simultaneous application of $π$ pulses to the two spins. All the currently relevant for experiments bath states are considered: the thermal state, narrowed states (characterized by diminished uncertainty of one of the components of the Overhauser field) of two uncorrelated baths, and a correlated narrowed state with a well-defined value of the $z$ component of the Overhauser field interdot gradient. While we mostly use concurrence to quantify the amount of entanglement in a mixed state of the two electron spins, we also show that their entanglement dynamics can be reconstructed from measurements of the currently relevant for experiments entanglement witnesses, and the fidelity of quantum teleportation performed using a partially disentangled state as a resource.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Dynamical decoupling noise spectroscopy at an optimal working point of a qubit

I present a theory of environmental noise spectroscopy via dynamical decoupling of a qubit at an optimal working point. Considering a sequence of $n$ pulses and pure dephasing due to quadratic coupling to Gaussian distributed noise $ξ(t)$, I use the linked-cluster (cumulant) expansion to calculate the coherence decay. Solutions allowing for reconstruction of spectral density of noise are given. For noise with correlation time shorter than the timescale on which coherence decays, the noise filtered by the dynamical decoupling procedure can be treated as effectively Gaussian at large $n$, and well-established methods of noise spectroscopy can be used to reconstruct the spectrum of $ξ^{2}(t)$ noise. On the other hand, for noise of dominant low-frequency character ($1/f^β$ noise with $β\! > \! 1$), an infinite-order resummation of the cumulant expansion is necessary, and it leads to an analytical formula for coherence decay having a power-law tail at long times. In this case, the coherence at time $t$ depends both on spectral density of $ξ(t)$ noise at $ω\! = \! nπ/t$, and on the effective low-frequency cutoff of the noise spectrum, which is typically given by the inverse of the data acquisition time. Simulations of decoherence due to purely transverse noise show that the analytical formulas derived in this paper apply in this often encountered case of an optimal working point, provided that the number of pulses is not very large, and the longitudinal qubit splitting is much larger than the transverse noise amplitude.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Hyperfine interaction induced dephasing of coupled spin qubits in semiconductor double quantum dots

We investigate theoretically the hyperfine-induced dephasing of two-electron-spin states in a double quantum dot with a finite singlet-triplet splitting J. In particular, we derive an effective pure dephasing Hamiltonian, which is valid when the hyperfine-induced mixing is suppressed due to the relatively large J and the external magnetic field. Using both a quantum theory based on resummation of ring diagrams and semiclassical methods, we identify the dominant dephasing processes in regimes defined by values of the external magnetic field, the singlet-triplet splitting, and inhomogeneity in the total effective magnetic field. We address both free induction and Hahn echo decay of superposition of singlet and unpolarized triplet states (both cases are relevant for singlet-triplet qubits realized in double quantum dots). We also study hyperfine-induced exchange gate errors for two single-spin qubits. Results for III-V semiconductors as well as silicon-based quantum dots are presented.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

In-plane radiative recombination channel of a dark exciton in self-assembled quantum dots

We demonstrate evidence for a radiative recombination channel of dark excitons in self-assembled quantum dots. This channel is due to a light hole admixture in the excitonic ground state. Its presence was experimentally confirmed by a direct observation of the dark exciton photoluminescence from a cleaved edge of the sample. The polarization resolved measurements revealed that a photon created from the dark exciton recombination is emitted only in the direction perpendicular to the growth axis. Strong correlation between the dark exciton lifetime and the in-plane hole g-factor enabled us to show that the radiative recombination is a dominant decay channel of the dark excitons in CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Nonperturbative master equation solution of central spin dephasing dynamics

We solve the long-standing central spin problem for a general set of inhomogeneous bath couplings and a large class of initial bath states. We compute the time evolution of the coherence of a central spin coupled to a spin bath by resumming all orders of the time-convolutionless master equation, thus avoiding the need to assume weak coupling to the bath. The fully quantum, non-Markovian solution is obtained in the large-bath limit and is valid up to a timescale set by the largest coupling constant. Our result captures the full decoherence of an electron spin qubit coupled to a nuclear spin bath in a GaAs quantum dot for experimentally relevant parameters. In addition, our solution is quite compact and can readily be used to make quantitative predictions for the decoherence process and to guide the design of nuclear state preparation protocols.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

PbTe/PbSnTe heterostructures as analogs of topological insulators

We investigate theoretically the PbTe/PbSnTe heterostructure grown in [111] direction, specifically a quantum wall (potential step of width d) of PbTe embedded in Pb_{1-x}Sn_{x}Te. For x large enough to lead to band inversion, and for large d, there are well-known gapless interface states associated with four L valleys. We show that for d \approx\ 10 nm the three pairs of states from oblique valleys strongly couple, and become gapped with a gap ~10 meV. On the other hand, the interface states from the [111] valley are essentially uncoupled, and they retain their helical character, remaining analogous to states at surfaces of thin layers of three-dimensional topological insulators. This opens up a possibility of studying the physics of two-dimensional helical Dirac fermions in heterostuctures of already widely studied IV-VI semicondcutors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Master equation approach to the central spin decoherence problem: the uniform coupling model and the role of projection operators

The generalized Master equation of the Nakajima-Zwanzig (NZ) type has been used extensively to investigate the coherence dynamics of the central spin model with the nuclear bath in a narrowed state characterized by a well defined value of the Overhauser field. We revisit the perturbative NZ approach and apply it to the exactly solvable case of a system with uniform hyperfine couplings. This is motivated by the fact that the effective Hamiltonian-based theory suggests that the dynamics of the realistic system at low magnetic fields and short times can be mapped onto the uniform coupling model. We show that the standard NZ approach fails to reproduce the exact solution of this model beyond very short times, while the effective Hamiltonian calculation agrees very well with the exact result on timescales during which most of the coherence is lost. Our key finding is that in order to extend the timescale of applicability of the NZ approach in this case, instead of using a single projection operator one has to use a set of correlated projection operators which properly reflect the symmetries of the problem and greatly improve the convergence of the theory. This suggests that the correlated projection operators are crucial for a proper description of narrowed state free induction decay at short times and low magnetic fields. Our results thus provide important insights toward the development of a more complete theory of central spin decoherence applicable in a broader regime of timescales and magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Dephasing of electron spin qubits due to their interaction with nuclei in quantum dots

Coherence of spins of electrons confined in III-V quantum dots is strongly affected by their hyperfine interaction with the nuclei. In this paper an introduction to this subject will be given. Some theoretical approaches to the problem will be outlined. Most attention will be given to the Quasi-Static Bath Approximation, to the cluster expansion theories of dephasing due to the nuclear dynamics induced by the dipolar interactions (spectral diffusion), and to the effective Hamiltonian based theory of dephasing due to hyperfine-mediated interactions. The connections between the theoretical results and various experiments will be emphasized.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Magnetic polaron formation and exciton spin relaxation in single CdMnTe quantum dots

We study the formation dynamics of a spontaneous ferromagnetic order in single self-assembled CdMnTe quantum dots. By measuring time-resolved photoluminescence, we determine the formation times for QDs with Mn ion contents x varying from 0.01 to 0.2. At low x these times are orders of magnitude longer than exciton spin relaxation times evaluated from the decay of photoluminescence circular polarization. This allows us to conclude that the direction of the spontaneous magnetization is determined by a momentary Mn spin fluctuation rather than resulting from an optical orientation. At higher x, the formation times are of the same order of magnitude as found in previous studies on higher dimensional systems. We also find that the exciton spin relaxation accelerates with increasing Mn concentration.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗