arXiv subjects

Daniel Loss

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel Loss.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Rashba Sandwiches with Topological Superconducting Phases

We introduce a versatile heterostructure harboring various topological superconducting phases characterized by the presence of helical, chiral, or unidirectional edge states. Changing parameters, such as an effective Zeeman field or chemical potential, one can tune between these three topological phases in the same setup. Our model relies only on conventional non-topological ingredients. The bilayer setup consists of an s-wave superconductor sandwiched between two two-dimensional electron gas layers with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The interplay between two different pairing mechanisms, proximity induced direct and crossed Andreev superconducting pairings, gives rise to multiple topological phases. In particular, helical edge states occur if crossed Andreev superconducting pairing is dominant. In addition, an in-plane Zeeman field leads to a 2D gapless topological phase with unidirectional edge states, which were previously predicted to exist only in non-centrosymmetric superconductors. If the Zeeman field is tilted out of the plane, the system is in a topological phase hosting chiral edge states.

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arXiv2018

Majorana Kramers pairs in Rashba double nanowires with interactions and disorder

We analyze the effects of electron-electron interactions and disorder on a Rashba double-nanowire setup coupled to an s-wave superconductor, which has been recently proposed as a versatile platform to generate Kramers pairs of Majorana bound states in the absence of magnetic fields. We identify the regime of parameters for which these Kramers pairs are stable against interaction and disorder effects. We use bosonization, perturbative renormalization group, and replica techniques to derive the flow equations for various parameters of the model and evaluate the corresponding phase diagram with topological and disorder-dominated phases. We confirm aforementioned results by considering a more microscopic approach which starts from the tunneling Hamiltonian between the three-dimensional s-wave superconductor and the nanowires. We find again that the interaction drives the system into the topological phase and, as the strength of the source term coming from the tunneling Hamiltonian increases, strong electron-electron interactions are required to reach the topological phase.

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arXiv2018

Topological Phase Detection in Rashba Nanowires with a Quantum Dot

We study theoretically the detection of the topological phase transition occurring in Rashba nanowires with proximity-induced superconductivity using a quantum dot. The bulk states lowest in energy of such a nanowire have a spin polarization parallel or antiparallel to the applied magnetic field in the topological or trivial phase, respectively. We show that this property can be probed by the quantum dot created at the end of the nanowire by external gates. By tuning one of the two spin-split levels of the quantum dot to be in resonance with nanowire bulk states, one can detect the spin polarization of the lowest band via transport measurement. This allows one to determine the topological phase of the Rashba nanowire independently of the presence of Majorana bound states.

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arXiv2017

Direct Rashba spin-orbit interaction in Si and Ge nanowires with different growth directions

We study theoretically the low-energy hole states in Si, Ge, and Ge/Si core/shell nanowires (NWs). The NW core in our model has a rectangular cross section, the results for a square cross section are presented in detail. In the case of Ge and Ge/Si core/shell NWs, we obtain very good agreement with previous theoretical results for cylindrically symmetric NWs. In particular, the NWs allow for an unusually strong and electrically controllable spin-orbit interaction (SOI) of Rashba type. We find that the dominant contribution to the SOI is the "direct Rashba spin-orbit interaction" (DRSOI), which is an important mechanism for systems with heavy-hole-light-hole mixing. Our results for Si NWs depend significantly on the orientation of the crystallographic axes. The numerically observed dependence on the growth direction is consistent with analytical results from a simple model, and we identify a setup where the DRSOI enables spin-orbit energies of the order of millielectronvolts in Si NWs. Furthermore, we analyze the dependence of the SOI on the electric field and the cross section of the Ge or Si core. A helical gap in the spectrum can be opened with a magnetic field. We obtain the largest g factors with magnetic fields applied perpendicularly to the NWs.

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arXiv2017

Quantum Dynamics of Skyrmions in Chiral Magnets

We study the quantum propagation of a Skyrmion in chiral magnetic insulators by generalizing the micromagnetic equations of motion to a finite-temperature path integral formalism, using field theoretic tools. Promoting the center of the Skyrmion to a dynamic quantity, the fluctuations around the Skyrmionic configuration give rise to a time-dependent damping of the Skyrmion motion. From the frequency dependence of the damping kernel, we are able to identify the Skyrmion mass, thus providing a microscopic description of the kinematic properties of Skyrmions. When defects are present or a magnetic trap is applied, the Skyrmion mass acquires a finite value proportional to the effective spin, even at vanishingly small temperature. We demonstrate that a Skyrmion in a confined geometry provided by a magnetic trap behaves as a massive particle owing to its quasi-one-dimensional confinement. An additional quantum mass term is predicted, independent of the effective spin, with an explicit temperature dependence which remains finite even at zero temperature.

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arXiv2017

Magnonic topological insulators in antiferromagnets

Extending the notion of symmetry protected topological phases to insulating antiferromagnets (AFs) described in terms of opposite magnetic dipole moments associated with the magnetic N$\acute{\rm{e}} $el order, we establish a bosonic counterpart of topological insulators in semiconductors. Making use of the Aharonov-Casher effect, induced by electric field gradients, we propose a magnonic analog of the quantum spin Hall effect (magnonic QSHE) for edge states that carry helical magnons. We show that such up and down magnons form the same Landau levels and perform cyclotron motion with the same frequency but propagate in opposite direction. The insulating AF becomes characterized by a topological ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ number consisting of the Chern integer associated with each helical magnon edge state. Focusing on the topological Hall phase for magnons, we study bulk magnon effects such as magnonic spin, thermal, Nernst, and Ettinghausen effects, as well as the thermomagnetic properties of helical magnon transport both in topologically trivial and nontrivial bulk AFs and establish the magnonic Wiedemann-Franz law. We show that our predictions are within experimental reach with current device and measurement techniques.

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arXiv2017

Hyperfine-phonon spin relaxation in a single-electron GaAs quantum dot

Understanding and control of the spin relaxation time $T_1$ is among the key challenges for spin based qubits. A larger $T_1$ is generally favored, setting the fundamental upper limit to the qubit coherence and spin readout fidelity. In GaAs quantum dots at low temperatures and high in-plane magnetic fields $B$, the spin relaxation relies on phonon emission and spin-orbit coupling. The characteristic dependence $T_1 \propto B^{-5}$ and pronounced $B$-field anisotropy were already confirmed experimentally. However, it has also been predicted 15 years ago that at low enough fields, the spin-orbit interaction is replaced by the coupling to the nuclear spins, where the relaxation becomes isotropic, and the scaling changes to $T_1 \propto B^{-3}$. We establish these predictions experimentally, by measuring $T_1$ over an unprecedented range of magnetic fields -- made possible by lower temperature -- and report a maximum $T_1 = 57\pm15$ s at the lowest fields, setting a new record for the electron spin lifetime in a nanostructure.

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arXiv2017

Finite-size effects in a nanowire strongly coupled to a thin superconducting shell

We study the proximity effect in a one-dimensional nanowire strongly coupled to a finite superconductor with a characteristic size which is much shorter than its coherence length. Such geometries have become increasingly relevant in recent years in the experimental search for Majorana fermions with the development of thin epitaxial Al shells which form a very strong contact with either InAs or InSb nanowires. So far, however, no theoretical treatment of the proximity effect in these systems has accounted for the finite size of the superconducting film. We show that the finite-size effects become very detrimental when the level spacing of the superconductor greatly exceeds its energy gap. Without any fine-tuning of the size of the superconductor (on the scale of the Fermi wavelength), the tunneling energy scale must be larger than the level spacing in order to reach the hard gap regime which is seen ubiquitously in the experiments. However, in this regime, the large tunneling energy scale induces a large shift in the effective chemical potential of the nanowire and pushes the topological phase transition to magnetic field strengths which exceed the critical field of Al.

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arXiv2017

Low-field Topological Threshold in Majorana Double Nanowires

A hard proximity-induced superconducting gap has recently been observed in semiconductor nanowire systems at low magnetic fields. However, in the topological regime at high magnetic fields, a soft gap emerges and represents a fundamental obstacle to topologically protected quantum information processing with Majorana bound states. Here we show that in a setup of double Rashba nanowires that are coupled to an s-wave superconductor and subjected to an external magnetic field along the wires, the topological threshold can be significantly reduced by the destructive interference of direct and crossed-Andreev pairing in this setup, precisely down to the magnetic field regime in which current experimental technology allows for a hard superconducting gap. We also show that the resulting Majorana bound states exhibit sufficiently short localization lengths, which makes them ideal candidates for future braiding experiments.

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arXiv2017

DIII Topological Superconductivity with Emergent Time-Reversal Symmetry

We find a new class of topological superconductors which possess an emergent time-reversal symmetry that is present only after projecting to an effective low-dimensional model. We show that a topological phase in symmetry class DIII can be realized in a noninteracting system coupled to an $s$-wave superconductor only if the physical time-reversal symmetry of the system is broken, and we provide three general criteria that must be satisfied in order to have such a phase. We also provide an explicit model which realizes the class DIII topological superconductor in 1D. We show that, just as in time-reversal invariant topological superconductors, the topological phase is characterized by a Kramers pair of Majorana fermions that are protected by the emergent time-reversal symmetry.

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arXiv2017

Nuclear-spin-induced localization of the edge states in two-dimensional topological insulators

We investigate the influence of nuclear spins on the resistance of helical edge states of two-dimensional topological insulators (2DTIs). Via the hyperfine interaction, nuclear spins allow electron backscattering, otherwise forbidden by time reversal symmetry. We identify two backscattering mechanisms, depending on whether the nuclear spins are ordered or not. Their temperature dependence is distinct but both give resistance, which increases with the edge length, decreasing temperature, and increasing strength of the electron-electron interaction. Overall, we find that the nuclear spins will typically shut down the conductance of the 2DTI edges at zero temperature.

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arXiv2017

Destructive interference of direct and crossed Andreev pairing in a system of two nanowires coupled via an s-wave superconductor

We consider a system of two one-dimensional nanowires coupled via an $s$-wave superconducting strip, a geometry that is capable of supporting Kramers pairs of Majorana fermions. By performing an exact analytical diagonalization of a tunneling Hamiltonian describing the proximity effect (via a Bogoliubov transformation), we show that the excitation gap of the system varies periodically on the scale of the Fermi wavelength in the limit where the interwire separation is shorter than the superconducting coherence length. Comparing with the excitation gaps in similar geometries containing only direct pairing, where one wire is decoupled from the superconductor, or only crossed Andreev pairing, where each nanowire is considered as a spin-polarized edge of a quantum Hall state, we find that the gap is always reduced, by orders of magnitude in certain cases, when both types of pairing are present. Our analytical results are further supported by numerical calculations on a tight-binding lattice. Finally, we show that treating the proximity effect by integrating out the superconductor using the bulk Green's function does not reproduce the results of our exact diagonalization.

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arXiv2017

Robust Single-Shot Spin Measurement with 99.5% Fidelity in a Quantum Dot Array

We demonstrate a new method for projective single-shot measurement of two electron spin states (singlet versus triplet) in an array of gate-defined lateral quantum dots in GaAs. The measurement has very high fidelity and is robust with respect to electric and magnetic fluctuations in the environment. It exploits a long-lived metastable charge state, which increases both the contrast and the duration of the charge signal distinguishing the two measurement outcomes. This method allows us to evaluate the charge measurement error and the spin-to-charge conversion error separately. We specify conditions under which this method can be used, and project its general applicability to scalable quantum dot arrays in GaAs or silicon.

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arXiv2017

Spin and Charge Signatures of Topological Superconductivity in Rashba Nanowires

We consider a Rashba nanowire with proximity gap which can be brought into the topological phase by tuning external magnetic field or chemical potential. We study spin and charge of the bulk quasiparticle states when passing through the topological transition for open and closed systems. We show, analytically and numerically, that the spin of bulk states around the topological gap reverses its sign when crossing the transition due to band inversion, independent of the presence of Majorana fermions in the system. This spin reversal can be considered as a bulk signature of topological superconductivity that can be accessed experimentally. We find a similar behaviour for the charge of the bulk quasiparticle states, also exhibiting a sign reversal at the transition. We show that these signatures are robust against random static disorder.

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arXiv2017

Three-Dimensional Fractional Topological Insulators in Coupled Rashba Layers

We propose a model of three-dimensional topological insulators consisting of weakly coupled electron- and hole-gas layers with Rashba spin-orbit interaction stacked along a given axis. We show that in the presence of strong electron-electron interactions the system realizes a fractional strong topological insulator, where the rotational symmetry and condensation energy arguments still allow us to treat the problem as quasi-one-dimensional with bosonization techniques. We also show that if Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction terms are equally strong, by doping the system with magnetic impurities, one can bring it into the Weyl semimetal phase.

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arXiv2017

Spin-dependent coupling between quantum dots and topological quantum wires

Considering Rashba quantum wires with a proximity-induced superconducting gap as physical realizations of Majorana fermions and quantum dots, we calculate the overlap of the Majorana wave functions with the local wave functions on the dot. We determine the spin-dependent tunneling amplitudes between these two localized states and show that we can tune into a fully spin polarized tunneling regime by changing the distance between dot and Majorana fermion. Upon directly applying this to the tunneling model Hamiltonian, we calculate the effective magnetic field on the quantum dot flanked by two Majorana fermions. The direction of the induced magnetic field on the dot depends on the occupation of the nonlocal fermion formed from the two Majorana end states which can be used as a readout for such a Majorana qubit.

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arXiv2017

Long-Range Interaction between Charge and Spin Qubits in Quantum Dots

We analyze and give estimates for the long-distance coupling via floating metallic gates between different types of spin qubits in quantum dots made of different commonly used materials. In particular, we consider the hybrid, the singlet-triplet, and the spin-$1/2$ qubits, and the pairwise coupling between each type of these qubits with another hybrid qubit in GaAs, InAs, Si, and $\mathrm{Si_{0.9}Ge_{0.1}}$. We show that hybrid qubits can be capacitively coupled strongly enough to implement two-qubit gates, as long as the distance of the dots from the metallic gates is small enough. Thus, hybrid qubits are good candidates for scalable implementations of quantum computing in semiconducting nanostructures.

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arXiv2017

Magnonic quantum Hall effect and Wiedemann-Franz law

We present a quantum Hall effect of magnons in two-dimensional clean insulating magnets at finite temperature. Through the Aharonov-Casher effect, a magnon moving in an electric field acquires a geometric phase and forms Landau levels in an electric field gradient of sawtooth form. At low temperatures, the lowest energy band being almost flat carries a Chern number associated with a Berry curvature. Appropriately defining the thermal conductance for bosons, we find that the magnon Hall conductances get quantized and show a universal thermomagnetic behavior, i.e., are independent of materials, and obey a Wiedemann-Franz law for magnon transport. We consider magnons with quadratic and linear (Dirac-like) dispersions. Finally, we show that our predictions are within experimental reach for ferromagnets and skyrmion lattices with current device and measurement techniques.

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