arXiv subjects

B. Trauzettel

Publications and source records attributed to B. Trauzettel.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Theory of spin qubits in nanostructures

We review recent advances on the theory of spin qubits in nanostructures. We focus on four selected topics. First, we show how to form spin qubits in the new and promising material graphene. Afterwards, we discuss spin relaxation and decoherence in quantum dots. In particular, we demonstrate how charge fluctations in the surrounding environment cause spin decay via spin--orbit coupling. We then turn to a brief overview of how one can use electron-dipole spin resonance (EDSR) to perform single spin rotations in quantum dots using an oscillating electric field. The final topic we cover is the spin-spin coupling via spin-orbit interaction which is an alternative to the usual spin-spin coupling via the Heisenberg exchange interaction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Temperature dependence of Coulomb drag between finite-length quantum wires

We evaluate the Coulomb drag current in two finite-length Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid wires coupled by an electrostatic backscattering interaction. The drag current in one wire shows oscillations as a function of the bias voltage applied to the other wire, reflecting interferences of the plasmon standing waves in the interacting wires. In agreement with this picture, the amplitude of the current oscillations is reduced with increasing temperature. This is a clear signature of non-Fermi-liquid physics because for coupled Fermi liquids the drag resistance is always expected to increase as the temperature is raised.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Negativity of the excess noise in a quantum wire capacitively coupled to a gate

The electrical current noise of a quantum wire is expected to increase with increasing applied voltage. We show that this intuition can be wrong. Specifically, we consider a single channel quantum wire with impurities and with a capacitive coupling to nearby metallic gates and find that its excess noise, defined as the change in the noise caused by the finite voltage, can be negative at zero temperature. This feature is present both for large ($c \gg c_q$) and small ($c \ll c_q$) capacitive coupling, where $c$ is the geometrical and $c_q$ the quantum capacitance of the wire. In particular, for $c \gg c_q$, negativity of the excess noise can occur at finite frequency when the transmission coefficients are energy dependent, i.e. in the presence of Fabry-Pérot resonances or band curvature. In the opposite regime $c \lesssim c_q$, a non trivial voltage dependence of the noise arises even for energy independent transmission coefficients: at zero frequency the noise decreases with voltage as a power law when $c < c_q/3$, while, at finite frequency, regions of negative excess noise are present due to Andreev-type resonances.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Spin qubits in graphene quantum dots

We propose how to form spin qubits in graphene. A crucial requirement to achieve this goal is to find quantum dot states where the usual valley degeneracy in bulk graphene is lifted. We show that this problem can be avoided in quantum dots based on ribbons of graphene with semiconducting armchair boundaries. For such a setup, we find the energies and the exact wave functions of bound states, which are required for localized qubits. Additionally, we show that spin qubits in graphene can not only be coupled between nearest neighbor quantum dots via Heisenberg exchange interaction but also over long distances. This remarkable feature is a direct consequence of the quasi-relativistic spectrum of graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Photon-assisted electron transport in graphene

Photon-assisted electron transport in ballistic graphene is analyzed using scattering theory. We show that the presence of an ac signal (applied to a gate electrode in a region of the system) has interesting consequences on electron transport in graphene, where the low energy dynamics is described by the Dirac equation. In particular, such a setup describes a feasible way to probe energy dependent transmission in graphene. This is of substantial interest because the energy dependence of transmission in mesoscopic graphene is the basis of many peculiar transport phenomena proposed in the recent literature. Furthermore, we discuss the relevance of our analysis of ac transport in graphene to the observability of zitterbewegung of electrons that behave as relativistic particles (but with a lower effective speed of light).

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Parity meter for charge qubits: an efficient quantum entangler

We propose a realization of a charge parity meter based on two double quantum dots alongside a quantum point contact. Such a device is a specific example of the general class of mesoscopic quadratic quantum measurement detectors previously investigated by Mao et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 056803 (2004)]. Our setup accomplishes entangled state preparation by a current measurement alone, and allows the qubits to be effectively decoupled by pinching off the parity meter. Two applications of the parity meter are discussed: the measurement of Bell's inequality in charge qubits and the realization of a controlled NOT gate.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Quantum-limited shot noise in graphene

We calculate the mode-dependent transmission probability of massless Dirac fermions through an ideal strip of graphene (length L, width W, no impurities or defects), to obtain the conductance and shot noise as a function of Fermi energy. We find that the minimum conductivity of order e^2/h at the Dirac point (when the electron and hole excitations are degenerate) is associated with a maximum of the Fano factor (the ratio of noise power and mean current). For short and wide graphene strips the Fano factor at the Dirac point equals 1/3, three times smaller than for a Poisson process. This is the same value as for a disordered metal, which is remarkable since the classical dynamics of the Dirac fermions is ballistic.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Shot Noise Detection on a Carbon Nanotube Quantum Dot

An on-chip detection scheme for high frequency signals is used to detect noise generated by a quantum dot formed in a single wall carbon nanotube. The noise detection is based on photon assisted tunneling in a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction. Measurements of shot noise over a full Coulomb diamond are reported with excited states and inelastic cotunneling clearly resolved. Super-Poissonian noise is detected in the case of inelastic cotunneling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Transfer of entanglement from electrons to photons by optical selection rules

The entanglement transfer from electrons localized in a pair of quantum dots to circularly polarized photons is governed by optical selection rules, enforced by conservation of angular momentum. We point out that the transfer can not be achieved by means of unitary evolution unless the angular momentum of the two initial qubit states differs by 2 units. In particular, for spin-entangled electrons the difference in angular momentum is 1 unit -- so the transfer fails. Nevertheless, the transfer can be successfully completed if the unitary evolution is followed by a measurement of the angular momentum of each quantum dot and post-processing of the photons using the measured values as input.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Fractional charge in the noise of Luttinger liquid systems

The current noise of a voltage biased interacting quantum wire adiabatically connected to metallic leads is computed in presence of an impurity in the wire. We find that in the weak backscattering limit the Fano factor characterizing the ratio between shot noise and backscattering current crucially depends on the noise frequency relative to the ballistic frequency v_F/gL, where v_F is the Fermi velocity, g the Luttinger liquid interaction parameter, and L the length of the wire. In contrast to chiral Luttinger liquids, the noise is not only due to the Poissonian backscattering of fractionally charged quasiparticles at the impurity, but also depends on Andreev-type reflections of plasmons at the contacts, so that the frequency dependence of the noise needs to be analyzed to extract the fractional charge e*=e g of the bulk excitations. We show that the frequencies needed to see interaction effects in the Fano factor are within experimental reach.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2005

Entangled microwave photons from quantum dots

We describe a mechanism for the production of polarisation-entangled microwaves using intra-band transitions in a pair of quantum dots. This proposal relies neither on spin-orbit coupling nor on control over electron-electron interactions. The quantum correlation of microwave polarisations is obtained from orbital degrees of freedom in an external magnetic field. We calculate the concurrence of emitted microwave photon pairs, and show that a maximally entangled Bell pair is obtained in the limit of weak inter-dot coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Optimal spin-entangled electron-hole pair pump

A nonperturbative theory is presented for the creation by an oscillating potential of spin-entangled electron-hole pairs in the Fermi sea. In the weak potential limit, considered earlier by Samuelsson and Buttiker, the entanglement production is much less than one bit per cycle. We demonstrate that a strong potential oscillation can produce an average of one Bell pair per two cycles, making it an efficient source of entangled flying qubits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Effect of interactions on the noise of chiral Luttinger liquid systems

We analyze the current noise, generated at a quantum point contact in fractional quantum Hall edge state devices, using the chiral Luttinger liquid model with an impurity and the associated exact field theoretic solution. We demonstrate that an experimentally relevant regime of parameters exists where the noise coincides with the partition noise of independent Laughlin quasiparticles. However, outside of this regime, this independent particle picture breaks down and the inclusion of interaction effects is essential to understand the shot noise.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Appearance of fractional charge in the noise of non-chiral Luttinger liquids

The current noise of a voltage biased interacting quantum wire adiabatically connected to metallic leads is computed in presence of an impurity in the wire. We find that in the weak backscattering limit the Fano factor characterizing the ratio between noise and backscattered current crucially depends on the noise frequency $ω$ relative to the ballistic frequency $v_F/gL$, where $v_F$ is the Fermi velocity, $g$ the Luttinger liquid interaction parameter, and $L$ the length of the wire. In contrast to chiral Luttinger liquids the noise is not only due to the Poissonian backscattering of fractionally charged quasiparticles at the impurity, but also depends on Andreev-type reflections at the contacts, so that the frequency dependence of the noise needs to be analyzed to extract the fractional charge $e^*=e g$ of the bulk excitations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

Transport theory of carbon nanotube Y junctions

We describe a generalization of Landauer-Büttiker theory for networks of interacting metallic carbon nanotubes. We start with symmetric starlike junctions and then extend our approach to asymmetric systems. While the symmetric case is solved in closed form, the asymmetric situation is treated by a mix of perturbative and non-perturbative methods. For N>2 repulsively interacting nanotubes, the only stable fixed point of the symmetric system corresponds to an isolated node. Detailed results for both symmetric and asymmetric systems are shown for N=3, corresponding to carbon nanotube Y junctions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

How Irrelevant Operators affect the Determination of Fractional Charge

We show that the inclusion of irrelevant terms in the Hamiltonian describing tunneling between edge states in the fractional quantum Hall effect can lead to a variety of non perturbative behaviors in intermediate energy regimes, and, in particular, affect crucially the determination of charge through shot noise measurements. We show, for instance, that certain combinations of relevant and irrelevant terms can lead to an effective measured charge $νe$ in the strong backscattering limit and an effective measured charge $e$ in the weak backscattering limit, in sharp contrast with standard perturbative expectations. This provides a possible scenario to explain the experimental observations by Heiblum and coworkers, which are so far not understood.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

Long wavelength spatial oscillations of high frequency current noise in 1D electron systems

Finite frequency current noise is studied theoretically for a 1D electron system in presence of a scatterer. In contrast to zero frequency shot noise, finite frequency noise shows spatial oscillations at high frequencies with wavelength $πv_F/ω$. Band curvature leads to a decay of the amplitude of the noise oscillations as one moves away from the scatterer, superimposed by a beat. Furthermore, Coulomb interaction reduces the amplitude and modifies the wavelength of the oscillations, which we inspect in the framework of the Luttinger liquid (LL) model. The oscillatory noise contributions are only suppressed altogether when the LL interaction parameter $g \to 0$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Landauer-type transport theory for interacting quantum wires: Application to carbon nanotube Y junctions

We propose a Landauer-like theory for nonlinear transport in networks of one-dimensional interacting quantum wires (Luttinger liquids). A concrete example of current experimental focus is given by carbon nanotube Y junctions. Our theory has three basic ingredients that allow to explicitly solve this transport problem: (i) radiative boundary conditions to describe the coupling to external leads, (ii) the Kirchhoff node rule describing charge conservation, and (iii) density matching conditions at every node.

cond-mat.str-el↗