arXiv subjects

A. D. Wieck

Publications and source records attributed to A. D. Wieck.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Strong coupling of an Er3+ doped YAlO3 crystal to a superconducting resonator

Quantum memories are integral parts of both quantum computers and quantum communication networks. Naturally, such a memory is embedded into a hybrid quantum architecture, which has to meet the requirements of fast gates, long coherence times and long distance communication. Erbium doped crystals are well suited as a microwave quantum memory for superconducting circuits with additional access to the optical telecom C-band around 1.55 μm. Here, we report on circuit QED experiments with an Er3+:YAlO3 crystal and demonstrate strong coupling to a superconducting lumped element resonator. The low magnetic anisotropy of the host crystal allows for attaining the strong coupling regime at relatively low magnetic fields, which are compatible with superconducting circuits. In addition, Ce3+ impurities were detected in the crystal, which showed strong coupling as well.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Single Photoelectron Detection after Selective Excitation of Electron-Heavy Hole and Electron-Light Hole Pairs in Double Quantum Dots

We demonstrate the real-time detection of single photogenerated electrons in two different lateral double quantum dots made in AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells having a thin or a thick AlGaAs barrier layer. The observed incident laser power and photon energy dependences of the photoelectron detection efficiency both indicate that the trapped photoelectrons are, for the thin barrier sample, predominantly photogenerated in the buffer layer followed by tunneling into one of the two dots, whereas for the thick barrier sample they are directly photogenerated in the well. For the latter, single photoelectron detection after selective excitation of the heavy and light hole state in the dot is well resolved. This ensures the applicability of our quantum well-based quantum dot systems for the coherent transfer from single photon polarization to single electron spin states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Odd and even Kondo effects from emergent localisation in quantum point contacts

A quantum point contact (QPC) is a very basic nano-electronic device: a short and narrow transport channel between two electron reservoirs. In clean channels electron transport is ballistic and the conductance $G$ is then quantised as a function of channel width with plateaus at integer multiples of $2e^2/h$ ($e$ is the electron charge and $h$ Planck's constant). This can be understood in a picture where the electron states are propagating waves, without need to account for electron-electron interactions. Quantised conductance could thus be the signature of ultimate control over nanoscale electron transport. However, even studies with the cleanest QPCs generically show significant anomalies on the quantised conductance traces and there is consensus that these result from electron many-body effects. Despite extensive experimental and theoretical studies understanding of these anomalies is an open problem. We report evidence that the many-body effects have their origin in one or more spontaneously localised states that emerge from Friedel oscillations in the QPC channel. Kondo physics will then also contribute to the formation of the many-body state with Kondo signatures that reflect the parity of the number of localised states. Evidence comes from experiments with length-tunable QPCs that show a periodic modulation of the many-body physics with Kondo signatures of alternating parity. Our results are of importance for assessing the role of QPCs in more complex hybrid devices and proposals for spintronic and quantum information applications. In addition, our results show that tunable QPCs offer a rich platform for investigating many-body effects in nanoscale systems, with the ability to probe such physics at the level of a single site.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Counting statistics of hole transfer in a p-type GaAs quantum dot with dense excitation spectrum

Low-temperature transport experiments on a p-type GaAs quantum dot capacitively coupled to a quantum point contact are presented. The time-averaged as well as time-resolved detection of charging events of the dot are demonstrated and they are used to extract the tunnelling rates into and out of the quantum dot. The extracted rates exhibit a super-linear enhancement with the bias applied across the dot which is interpreted in terms of a dense spectrum of excited states contributing to the transport, characteristic for heavy hole systems. The full counting statistics of charge transfer events and the effect of back action is studied. The normal cumulants as well as the recently proposed factorial cumulants are calculated and discussed in view of their importance for interacting systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

The effect of (NH4)2Sx passivation on the (311)A GaAs surface and its use in AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure devices

We have studied the efficacy of (NH4)2Sx surface passivation on the (311)A GaAs surface. We report XPS studies of simultaneously-grown (311)A and (100) heterostructures showing that the (NH4)2Sx solution removes surface oxide and sulfidizes both surfaces. Passivation is often characterized using photoluminescence measurements, we show that while (NH4)2Sx treatment gives a 40 - 60 x increase in photoluminescence intensity for the (100) surface, an increase of only 2 - 3 x is obtained for the (311)A surface. A corresponding lack of reproducible improvement in the gate hysteresis of (311)A heterostructure transistor devices made with the passivation treatment performed immediately prior to gate deposition is also found. We discuss possible reasons why sulfur passivation is ineffective for (311)A GaAs, and propose alternative strategies for passivation of this surface.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Origins of conductance anomalies in a p-type GaAs quantum point contact

Low temperature transport measurements on a p-GaAs quantum point contact are presented which reveal the presence of a conductance anomaly that is markedly different from the conventional `0.7 anomaly'. A lateral shift by asymmetric gating of the conducting channel is utilized to identify and separate different conductance anomalies of local and generic origins experimentally. While the more generic 0.7 anomaly is not directly affected by changing the gate configuration, a model is proposed which attributes the additional conductance features to a gate-dependent coupling of the propagating states to localized states emerging due to a nearby potential imperfection. Finite bias conductivity measurements reveal the interplay between the two anomalies consistently with a two-impurity Kondo model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Scaling of the Kondo zero bias peak in a hole quantum dot at finite temperatures

We have measured the zero bias peak in differential conductance in a hole quantum dot. We have scaled the experimental data with applied bias and compared to real time renormalization group calculations of the differential conductance as a function of source-drain bias in the limit of zero temperature and at finite temperatures. The experimental data show deviations from the T=0 calculations at low bias, but are in very good agreement with the finite T calculations. The Kondo temperature T_K extracted from the data using T=0 calculations, and from the peak width at 2/3 maximum, is significantly higher than that obtained from finite T calculations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Hanle effect in (In,Ga)As quantum dots: Role of nuclear spin fluctuations

The role of nuclear spin fluctuations in the dynamic polarization of nuclear spins by electrons is investigated in (In,Ga)As quantum dots. The photoluminescence polarization under circularly polarized optical pumping in transverse magnetic fields (Hanle effect) is studied. A weak additional magnetic field parallel to the optical axis is used to control the efficiency of nuclear spin cooling and the sign of nuclear spin temperature. The shape of the Hanle curve is drastically modified with changing this control field, as observed earlier in bulk semiconductors and quantum wells. However, the standard nuclear spin cooling theory, operating with the mean nuclear magnetic field (Overhauser field), fails to describe the experimental Hanle curves in a certain range of control fields. This controversy is resolved by taking into account the nuclear spin fluctuations owed to the finite number of nuclei in the quantum dot. We propose a model describing cooling of the nuclear spin system by electron spins experiencing fast vector precession in the random Overhauser fields of nuclear spin fluctuations. The model allows us to accurately describe the measured Hanle curves and to determine the parameters of the electron-nuclear spin system of the studied quantum dots.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Using a tunable quantum wire to measure the large out-of-plane spin splitting of quasi two-dimensional holes in a GaAs nanostructure

The out-of-plane g-factor g_perp for quasi-2D holes in a (100) GaAs heterostructure is studied using a variable width quantum wire. A direct measurement of the Zeeman splitting is performed in a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the 2D plane. We measure an out-of-plane g-factor up to g_perp = 5, which is larger than previous optical studies of g_perp, and is approaching the long predicted but never experimentally verified out-of-plane g-factor of 7.2 for heavy holes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Temperature dependence of hole spin coherence in (In,Ga)As quantum dots measured by mode-locking and echo techniques

The temperature dependence of the coherence time of hole spins confined in self-assembled (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots is studied by spin mode-locking and spin echo techniques. Coherence times limited to about a μs are measured for temperatures below 8 K. For higher temperatures a fast drop occurs down to a few ns over a 10 K range. The hole-nuclear hyperfine interaction appears too weak to account for these limitations. We suggest that spin-orbit related interactions are the decisive sources for hole spin decoherence.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Anisotropic Zeeman splitting in p-type GaAs quantum point contacts

Low-temperature electrical conductance spectroscopy measurements of quantum point contacts implemented in p-type GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures are used to study the Zeeman splitting of 1D subbands for both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic field orientations. The resulting in-plane g-factors agree qualitatively with those of previous experiments on quantum wires while the quantitative differences can be understood in terms of the enhanced quasi-1D confinement anisotropy. The influence of confinement potential on the anisotropy is discussed and an estimate for the out-of-plane g-factor is obtained which, in contrast to previous experiments, is closer to the theoretical prediction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Transverse rectification in density-modulated two-dimensional electron gases

We demonstrate tunable transverse rectification in a density-modulated two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The density modulation is induced by two surface gates, running in parallel along a narrow stripe of 2DEG. A transverse voltage in the direction of the density modulation is observed, i.e. perpendicular to the applied source-drain voltage. The polarity of the transverse voltage is independent of the polarity of the source-drain voltage, demonstrating rectification in the device. We find that the transverse voltage $U_{y}$ depends quadratically on the applied source-drain voltage and non-monotonically on the density modulation. The experimental results are discussed in the framework of a diffusion thermopower model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Fifth-order nonlinear optical response of excitonic states in an InAs quantum dot ensemble measured with 2D spectroscopy

Exciton, trion and biexciton dephasing rates are measured within the inhomogeneous distribution of an InAs quantum dot (QD) ensemble using two-dimensional Fourier-transform spectroscopy. The dephasing rate of each excitonic state is similar for all QDs in the ensemble and the rates are independent of excitation density. An additional spectral feature -- too weak to be observed in the time-integrated four-wave mixing signal -- appears at high excitation density and is attributed to the $χ^{\textrm{(5)}}$ biexcitonic nonlinear response.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Interaction effects and transport properties of Pt capped Co nanoparticles

We studied the magnetic and transport properties of Co nanoparticles (NPs) being capped with varying amounts of Pt. Beside field and temperature dependent magnetization measurements we performed delta-M measurements to study the magnetic interactions between the Co NPs. We observe a transition from demagnetizing towards magnetizing interactions between the particles for an increasing amount of Pt capping. Resistivity measurements show a crossover from giant magnetoresistance towards anisotropic magnetoresistance.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

The origin of gate hysteresis in p-type Si-doped AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures

Gate instability/hysteresis in modulation-doped p-type AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures impedes the development of nanoscale hole devices, which are of interest for topics from quantum computing to novel spin physics. We present an extended study conducted using custom-grown, matched modulation-doped n-type and p-type heterostructures, with/without insulated gates, aimed at understanding the origin of the hysteresis. We show the hysteresis is not due to the inherent `leakiness' of gates on p-type heterostructures, as commonly believed. Instead, hysteresis arises from a combination of GaAs surface-state trapping and charge migration in the doping layer. Our results provide insights into the physics of Si acceptors in AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures, including widely-debated acceptor complexes such as Si-X. We propose methods for mitigating the gate hysteresis, including poisoning the modulation-doping layer with deep-trapping centers (e.g., by co-doping with transition metal species), and replacing the Schottky gates with degenerately-doped semiconductor gates to screen the conducting channel from GaAs surface-states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Split-gate quantum point contacts with tunable channel length

We report on developing split-gate quantum point contacts (QPCs) that have a tunable length for the transport channel. The QPCs were realized in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure with a two- dimensional electron gas (2DEG) below its surface. The conventional design uses 2 gate fingers on the wafer surface which deplete the 2DEG underneath when a negative gate voltage is applied, and this allows for tuning the width of the QPC channel. Our design has 6 gate fingers and this provides additional control over the form of the electrostatic potential that defines the channel. Our study is based on electrostatic simulations and experiments and the results show that we developed QPCs where the effective channel length can be tuned from about 200 nm to 600 nm. Length-tunable QPCs are important for studies of electron many-body effects because these phenomena show a nanoscale dependence on the dimensions of the QPC channel.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Hyperfine interaction mediated exciton spin relaxation in (In,Ga)As quantum dots

The population dynamics of dark and bright excitons in (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots is studied by two-color pump-probe spectroscopy in an external magnetic field. With the field applied in Faraday geometry and at T<20 K, the dark excitons decay on a ten nanoseconds time scale unless the magnetic field induces a resonance with a bright exciton state. At these crossings their effective lifetime is drastically shortened due to spin flips of either electron or hole by which the dark excitons are converted into bright ones. Due to the quasielastic character we attribute the origin of these flips to the hyperfine interaction with the lattice nuclei. We compare the exciton spin relaxation times in the two resonances and find that the spin flip involving an electron is approximately 25 times faster than the one of the hole. A temperature increase leads to a considerable, nonmonotonic decrease of the dark exciton lifetime. Here phonon-mediated spin flips due to the spin-orbit interaction gradually become more important.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Many-body correlations of electrostatically trapped dipolar excitons

We study the photoluminescence (PL) of a two-dimensional liquid of oriented dipolar excitons in In_{x}Ga_{1-x}As coupled double quantum wells confined to a microtrap. Generating excitons outside the trap and transferring them at lattice temperatures down to T = 240 mK into the trap we create cold quasi-equilibrium bosonic ensembles of some 1000 excitons with thermal de Broglie wavelengths exceeding the excitonic separation. With decreasing temperature and increasing density n <= 5*10^10 cm^{-2} we find an increasingly asymmetric PL lineshape with a sharpening blue edge and a broad red tail which we interpret to reflect correlated behavior mediated by dipolar interactions. From the PL intensity I(E) below the PL maximum at E_{0} we extract at T < 5 K a distinct power law I(E) \sim (E_{0}-E)^-|α| with -|α|\sim -0.8 in the range E_{0}-E of 1.5-4 meV, comparable to the dipolar interaction energy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗