arXiv subjects

A. Cottet

Publications and source records attributed to A. Cottet.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Electrical control of the metal-insulator transition in a one dimensional device

Controlling the low energy spectrum at the nanoscale with an external physical parameter has become an important resource for quantum devices. The emergence of an energy gap is one such key feature, linked to the mitigation of decoherence needed for quantum information processing. Indeed, the detrimental effects of high-energy uncontrolled excitations can only be cured at some specific tuning points in general. Achieving an energy gap is a natural way to extend decoherence countermeasures over a finite region of parameter space. This would be particularly useful in view of the recent efforts to build superconducting topological chains in a top-down approach. In this work, we demonstrate a large energy gap by spatially modulating the local potential of a suspended carbon nanotube, exploiting an analogy with condensed matter systems. This gap is homogeneous on the nanotube and tunable by about two orders of magnitude, bringing the electronic system from an insulating state to a near-metallic state at low temperatures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Microsecond-lived quantum states in a carbon-based circuit driven by cavity photons

Semiconductor quantum dots are an attractive platform for the realisation of quantum processors. To achieve long-range coupling between them, quantum dots have been integrated into microwave cavities. However, it has been shown that their coherence is then reduced compared to their cavity-free implementations. Here, we manipulate the quantum states of a suspended carbon nanotube double quantum dot with ferromagnetic contacts embedded in a microwave cavity. By performing quantum manipulations via the cavity photons, we demonstrate coherence times of the order of $1.3\mu s$, two orders of magnitude larger than those measured so far in any carbon quantum circuit and one order of magnitude larger than silicon-based quantum dots in comparable environment. This holds promise for carbon as a host material for spin qubits in circuit quantum electrodynamics.

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arXiv2024

Observation of quantum oscillations in the extreme weak anharmonic limit

We investigate a granular aluminium quantum circuit with an anharmonicity of the order of its decoherence rate in a 3-dimensional microwave cavity. We perform single qubit-like manipulations such as Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes. Our findings, supported by quantitative numerical modeling, show that a very weakly anharmonic oscillator can also display quantum oscillations outside the qubit regime. These oscillations are hard to disambiguate from qubit oscillations in time domain measurements for a single driving frequency. This sheds new light on recent findings for new material superconducting quantum bits. Our platform shows in addition large magnetic field resilience which could find applications for quantum enhanced dark matter search.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Zero energy states clustering in an elemental nanowire coupled to a superconductor

Nanoelectronic hybrid devices combining superconductors and a one-dimensional nanowire are promising platforms to realize topological superconductivity and its resulting exotic excitations. The bulk of experimental studies in this context are transport measurements where conductance peaks allow to perform a spectroscopy of the low lying electronic states and potentially to identify signatures of the aforementioned excitations. The complexity of the experimental landscape calls for a benchmark in an elemental situation. The present work tackles such a task using an ultra-clean carbon nanotube circuit. Specifically, we show that the combination of magnetic field, weak disorder and superconductivity can lead to states clustering at low energy, as predicted by the random matrix theory predictions. Such a phenomenology is very general and should apply to most platforms trying to realize topological superconductivity in 1D systems, thus calling for alternative probes to reveal it.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Staggered spin-orbit interaction in a nanoscale device

The coupling of the spin and the motion of charge carriers stems directly from the atomic structure of a conductor. It has become an important ingredient for the emergence of topological matter, and, in particular, topological superconductivity which could host non-abelian excitations such as Majorana modes or parafermions. These modes are sought after mostly in semiconducting platforms which are made of heavy atoms and therefore exhibit naturally a large spin-orbit interaction. Creating domain walls in the spin orbit interaction at the nanoscale may turn out to be a crucial resource for engineering topological excitations suitable for universal topological quantum computing. For example, it has been proposed for exploring exotic electronic states or for creating hinge states. Realizing this in natural platforms remains a challenge. In this work, we show how this can be alternatively implemented by using a synthetic spin orbit interaction induced by two lithographically patterned magnetically textured gates. By using a double quantum dot in a light material -- a carbon nanotube -- embedded in a microwave cavity, we trigger hopping between two adjacent orbitals with the microwave photons and directly compare the wave functions separated by the domain wall via the light-matter coupling. We show that we can achieve an engineered staggered spin-orbit interaction with a change of strength larger than the hopping energy between the two sites.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Hybrid light-matter networks of Majorana zero modes

Topological excitations, such as Majorana zero modes, are a promising route for encoding quantum information. Topologically protected gates of Majorana qubits, based on their braiding, will require some form of network. Here, we propose to build such a network by entangling Majorana matter with light in a microwave cavity QED setup. Our scheme exploits a light-induced interaction which is universal to all the Majorana nanoscale circuit platforms. This effect stems from a parametric drive of the light-matter coupling in a one-dimensional chain of physical Majorana modes. Our setup enables all the basic operations needed in a Majorana quantum computing platform such as fusing, braiding, the crucial T-gate, the read-out and, importantly, the stabilization or correction of the physical Majorana modes.

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arXiv2020

Nanoassembly technique of carbon nanotubes for hybrid circuit-QED

A complex quantum dot circuit based on a clean and suspended carbon nanotube embedded in a circuit quantum electrodynamique (cQED) architecture is a very attractive platform to investigate a large spectrum of physics phenomena ranging from qubit physics to nanomechanics. We demonstrate a carbon nanotube transfer process allowing us to integrate clean carbon nanotubes into complex quantum dot circuits inside a cQED platform. This technique is compatible with various contacting materials such as superconductors or ferromagnets. This makes it suitable for hybrid quantum devices. Our results are based on 8 different devices demonstrating the robustness of this technique.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Highly coherent spin states in carbon nanotubes coupled to cavity photons

Spins confined in quantum dots are considered as a promising platform for quantum information processing. While many advanced quantum operations have been demonstrated, experimental as well as theoretical efforts are now focusing on the development of scalable spin quantum bit architectures. One particularly promising method relies on the coupling of spin quantum bits to microwave cavity photons. This would enable the coupling of distant spins via the exchange of virtual photons for two qubit gate applications, which still remains to be demonstrated with spin qubits. Here, we use a circuit QED spin-photon interface to drive a single electronic spin in a carbon nanotube based double quantum dot using cavity photons. The microwave spectroscopy allows us to identify an electrically controlled spin transition with a decoherence rate which can be tuned to be as low as $250kHz$. We show that this value is consistent with the expected hyperfine coupling in carbon nanotubes. These coherence properties, which can be attributed to the use of pristine carbon nanotubes stapled inside the cavity, should enable coherent spin-spin interaction via cavity photons and compare favourably to the ones recently demonstrated in Si-based circuit QED experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Synthetic spin orbit interaction for Majorana devices

The interplay of superconductivity with a non-trivial spin texture holds promises for the engineering of non-abelian Majorana quasi-particles. A wide class of systems expected to exhibit exotic correlations are based on nanoscale conductors with strong spin-orbit interaction, subject to a strong external magnetic field. The strength of the spin-orbit coupling is a crucial parameter for the topological protection of Majorana modes as it forbids other trivial excitations at low energy. The spin-orbit interaction is in principle intrinsic to a material. As a consequence, experimental efforts have been recently focused on semiconducting nano-conductors or spin-active atomic chains contacted to a superconductor. Alternatively, we show how both a spin-orbit and a Zeeman effect can be autonomously induced by using a magnetic texture coupled to any low dimensional conductor, here a carbon nanotube. Transport spectroscopy through superconducting contacts reveals oscillations of Andreev like states under a change of the magnetic texture. These oscillations are well accounted for by a scattering theory and are absent in a control device with no magnetic texture. A large synthetic spin-orbit energy of about 1.1 meV, larger than the intrinsic spin orbit energy in many other platforms, is directly derived from the number of oscillations. Furthermore, a robust zero energy state, the hallmark of devices hosting localized Majorana modes, emerges at zero magnetic field. Our findings synthetize all the features for the emergence of Majorana modes at zero magnetic field in a controlled, local and autonomous fashion. It could be used for advanced experiments, including microwave spectroscopy and braiding operations, which are at the heart of new schemes of topological quantum computation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Observation of the frozen charge of a Kondo resonance

The ability to control electronic states at the nanoscale has contributed to our modern understanding of condensed matter. In particular, quantum dot circuits represent model systems for the study of strong electronic correlations, epitomized by the Kondo effect. Here, we show that circuit Quantum Electrodynamics architectures can be used to study the internal degrees of freedom of such a many-body phenomenon. We couple a quantum dot to a high finesse microwave cavity to measure with an unprecedented sensitivity the dot electronic compressibility i.e. the ability of the dot to accommodate charges. Because it corresponds solely to the charge response of the electronic system, this quantity is not equivalent to the conductance which involves in general other degrees of freedom such as spin. By performing dual conductance/compressibility measurements in the Kondo regime, we uncover directly the charge dynamics of this peculiar mechanism of electron transfer. Strikingly, the Kondo resonance, visible in transport measurements, is transparent to microwave photons trapped in the high finesse cavity. This reveals that, in such a many body resonance, finite conduction is achieved from a charge frozen by Coulomb interaction. This previously elusive freezing of charge dynamics is in stark contrast with the physics of a free electron gas. Our setup highlights the power of circuit quantum electrodynamics architectures to study condensed matter problems. The tools of cavity quantum electrodynamics could be used in other types of mesoscopic circuits with many-body correlations and bring a promising platform to perform quantum simulation of fermion-boson problems.

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arXiv2018

Scaling laws of the Kondo problem at finite frequency

Driving a quantum system at finite frequency allows one to explore its dynamics. This has become a well mastered resource for controlling the quantum state of two level systems in the context of quantum information processing. However, this can also be of fundamental interest, especially with many-body systems which display an intricate finite frequency behavior. In condensed matter, the Kondo effect epitomizes strong electronic correlations, but the study of its dynamics and the related scaling laws has remained elusive so far. Here, we fill this gap by studying a carbon nanotube based Kondo quantum dot driven by a microwave signal. Our findings not only confirm long-standing theoretical predictions, but also allow us to establish a simple ansatz for the scaling laws on the Kondo problem at finite frequency. More generally, our technique opens a new path for understanding the dynamics of complex quantum dot circuits in the context of quantum simulation of strongly correlated electron fluids.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Strong coupling between an electron in a quantum dot circuit and a photon in a cavity

Circuit quantum electrodynamics allows one to probe, manipulate and couple superconducting quantum bits using cavity photons at an exquisite level. One of its cornerstones is the possibility to achieve the strong coupling which allows one to hybridize coherently light and matter. Its transposition to quantum dot circuits could offer the opportunity to use new degrees of freedom such as individual charge or spin. However, the strong coupling of quantum dot circuits to cavity photons remains to be observed. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid superconductor-quantum dot circuit which realizes the strong coupling of an individual electronic excitation to microwave photons. We observe a vacuum Rabi splitting 2g~10 MHz which exceeds by a factor of 3 the linewidth of the hybridized light-matter states. Our findings open the path to ultra-long distance entanglement of quantum dot based qubits. They could be adapted to many other circuit designs, shedding new light on the roadmap for scalability of quantum dot setups.

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arXiv2016

Towards hybrid circuit quantum electrodynamics with quantum dots

Cavity quantum electrodynamics allows one to study the interaction between light and matter at the most elementary level. The methods developed in this field have taught us how to probe and manipulate individual quantum systems like atoms and superconducting quantum bits with an exquisite accuracy. There is now a strong effort to extend further these methods to other quantum systems, and in particular hybrid quantum dot circuits. This could turn out to be instrumental for a noninvasive study of quantum dot circuits and a realization of scalable spin quantum bit architectures. It could also provide an interesting platform for quantum simulation of simple fermion-boson condensed matter systems. In this short review, we discuss the experimental state of the art for hybrid circuit quantum electrodynamics with quantum dots, and we present a simple theoretical modeling of experiments.

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arXiv2016

Cavity photons as a probe for charge relaxation resistance and photon emission in a quantum dot coupled to normal and superconducting continua

Microwave cavities have been widely used to investigate the behavior of closed few-level systems. Here, we show that they also represent a powerful probe for the dynamics of charge transfer between a discrete electronic level and fermionic continua. We have combined experiment and theory for a carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to normal metal and superconducting contacts. In equilibrium conditions, where our device behaves as an effective quantum dot-normal metal junction, we approach a universal photon dissipation regime governed by a quantum charge relaxation effect. We observe how photon dissipation is modified when the dot admittance turns from capacitive to inductive. When the fermionic reservoirs are voltage biased, the dot can even cause photon emission due to inelastic tunneling to/from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer peak in the density of states of the superconducting contact. We can model these numerous effects quantitatively in terms of the charge susceptibility of the quantum dot circuit. This validates an approach that could be used to study a wide class of mesoscopic QED devices.

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arXiv2015

Sensitive radio-frequency measurements of a quantum dot by tuning to perfect impedance matching

Electrical readout of spin qubits requires fast and sensitive measurements, but these are hindered by poor impedance matching to the device. We demonstrate perfect impedance matching in a radio-frequency readout circuit, realized by incorporating voltage-tunable varactors to cancel out parasitic capacitances. In the optimized setup, a capacitance sensitivity of $1.6~\mathrm{aF}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ is achieved at a maximum source-drain bias of $170~μ$V root-mean-square and with bandwidth above $15~$MHz. Coulomb blockade is measured via both conductance and capacitance in a quantum dot, and the two contributions are found to be proportional, as expected from a quasistatic tunneling model. We benchmark our results against the requirements for single-shot qubit readout using quantum capacitance, a goal that has so far been elusive.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Coherent coupling of a single spin to microwave cavity photons

Electron spins and photons are complementary quantum-mechanical objects that can be used to carry, manipulate and transform quantum information. To combine these resources, it is desirable to achieve the coherent coupling of a single spin to photons stored in a superconducting resonator. Using a circuit design based on a nanoscale spin-valve, we coherently hybridize the individual spin and charge states of a double quantum dot while preserving spin coherence. This scheme allows us to achieve spin-photon coupling up to the MHz range at the single spin level. The cooperativity is found to reach 2.3, and the spin coherence time is about 60ns. We thereby demonstrate a mesoscopic device suitable for non-destructive spin read-out and distant spin coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

General Boundary Conditions for Quasiclassical Theory of Superconductivity in the Diffusive Limit: Application to Strongly Spin-polarized Systems

Boundary conditions in quasiclassical theory of superconductivity are of crucial importance for describing proximity effects in heterostructures between different materials. Although they have been derived for the ballistic case in full generality, corresponding boundary conditions for the diffusive limit, described by Usadel theory, have been lacking for interfaces involving strongly spin-polarized materials, such as e.g. half-metallic ferromagnets. Given the current intense research in the emerging field of superconducting spintronics, the formulation of appropriate boundary conditions for the Usadel theory of diffusive superconductors in contact with strongly spin-polarized ferromagnets for arbitrary transmission probability and arbitrary spin-dependent interface scattering phases has been a burning open question. Here we close this gap and derive the full boundary conditions for quasiclassical Green functions in the diffusive limit, valid for any value of spin polarization, transmission probability, and spin mixing angles (spin-dependent scattering phase shifts). It allows also for complex spin textures across the interface and for channel off-diagonal scattering (a necessary ingredient when the numbers of channels on the two sides of the interface differ). As an example we derive expressions for the proximity effect in diffusive systems involving half-metallic ferromagnets. In a superconductor/half-metal/superconductor Josephson junction we find $ϕ_0$ junction behavior under certain interface conditions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Out of equilibrium charge dynamics in a hybrid cQED architecture

The recent development of hybrid cQED allows one to study how cavity photons interact with a system driven out of equilibrium by fermionic reservoirs. We study here one of the simplest combination : a double quantum dot coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field. We are able to couple resonantly the charge levels of a carbon nanotube based double dot to cavity photons. We perform a microwave read out of the charge states of this system which allows us to unveil features of the out of equilibrium charge dynamics, otherwise invisible in the DC current. We extract relaxation rate, dephasing rate and photon number of the hybrid system using a theory based on a master equation technique. These findings open the path for manipulating other degrees of freedom e.g. the spin and/or the valley in nanotube based double dots using microwave light.

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