arXiv subjects

Eric J. Heller

Publications and source records attributed to Eric J. Heller.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Imaging Universal Conductance Fluctuations in Graphene

We study conductance fluctuations (CF) and the sensitivity of the conductance to the motion of a single scatterer in two-dimensional massless Dirac systems. Our extensive numerical study finds limits to the predicted universal value of CF. We find that CF are suppressed for ballistic systems near the Dirac point and approach the universal value at sufficiently strong disorder. The conductance of massless Dirac fermions is sensitive to the motion of a single scatterer. CF of order $e^2/h$ result from the motion of a single impurity by a distance comparable to the Fermi wavelength. This result applies to graphene systems with a broad range of impurity strength and concentration while the dependence on the Fermi wavelength can be explored {\em via} gate voltages. Our prediction can be tested by comparing graphene samples with varying amounts of disorder and can be used to understand interference effects in mesoscopic graphene devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Husimi Maps in Graphene

We present a method for bridging the gap between the Dirac effective field theory and atomistic simulations in graphene based on the Husimi projection, allowing us to depict phenomena in graphene at arbitrary scales. This technique takes the atomistic wavefunction as an input, and produces semiclassical pictures of quasiparticles in the two Dirac valleys. We use the Husimi tech- nique to produce maps of the scattering behavior of boundaries, giving insight into the properties of wavefunctions at energies both close to and far from the Dirac point. Boundary conditions play a significant role to the rise of Fano resonances, which we examine using the Husimi map to deepen our understanding of bond currents near resonance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Husimi Maps in Lattices

We build upon previous work that used coherent states as a measurement of the local phase space and extended the flux operator by adapting the Husimi projection to produce a vector field called the Husimi map. In this article, we extend its definition from continuous systems to lattices. This requires making several adjustments to incorporate effects such as group velocity and multiple bands. Several phenomena which uniquely occur in lattice systems, like group-velocity warping and internal Bragg diffraction, are explained and demonstrated using Husimi maps. We also show that scattering points between bands and valleys can be identified in the divergence of the Husimi map.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Extending the Concept of Probability Flux

We develop the Husimi map for visualizing quantum wavefunctions using coherent states as a measurement of the local phase space to produce a vector field related to the probability flux. Adapted from the Husimi projection, the Husimi map is complimentary to the usual flux map, since they are identical for small coherent states. By improving our understanding of the flux operator and offering a robust and flexible alternative, we show how the Husimi projection can provide a map to the classical dynamics underlying a quantum wavefunction. We demonstrate its capabilities on bound systems with electromagnetic fields, as well as on open systems on and off resonance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Cold collisions of complex polyatomic molecules

We introduce a method for classical trajectory calculations to simulate collisions between atoms and large rigid asymmetric-top molecules. Using this method, we investigate the formation of molecule-helium complexes in buffer-gas cooling experiments at a temperature of 6.5 K for molecules as large as naphthalene. Our calculations show that the mean lifetime of the naphthalene-helium quasi-bound collision complex is not long enough for the formation of stable clusters under the experimental conditions. Our results suggest that it may be possible to improve the efficiency of the production of cold molecules in buffer-gas cooling experiments by increasing the density of helium. In addition, we find that the shape of molecules is important for the collision dynamics when the vibrational motion of molecules is frozen. For some molecules, it is even more crucial than the number of accessible degrees of freedom. This indicates that by selecting molecules with suitable shape for buffer-gas cooling, it may be possible to cool molecules with a very large number of degrees of freedom.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2010

Self-consistent calculation of electric potentials in Hall devices

Using a first-principles classical many-body simulation of a Hall bar, we study the necessary conditions for the formation of the Hall potential: (i) Ohmic contacts with metallic reservoirs, (ii) electron-electron interactions, and (iii) confinement to a finite system. By propagating thousands of interacting electrons over million time-steps we capture the build-up of the self-consistent potential, which resembles results obtained by conformal-mapping methods. As shown by a microscopic model of the current injection, the Hall effect is linked to specific boundary conditions at the particle reservoirs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Imaging and manipulating electrons in a 1D quantum dot with Coulomb blockade microscopy

Motivated by the recent experiments by the Westervelt group using a mobile tip to probe the electronic state of quantum dots formed on a segmented nanowire, we study the shifts in Coulomb blockade peak positions as a function of the spatial variation of the tip potential, which can be termed "Coulomb blockade microscopy". We show that if the tip can be brought sufficiently close to the nanowire, one can distinguish a high density electronic liquid state from a Wigner crystal state by microscopy with a weak tip potential. In the opposite limit of a strongly negative tip potential, the potential depletes the electronic density under it and divides the quantum wire into two partitions. There the tip can push individual electrons from one partition to the other, and the Coulomb blockade micrograph can clearly track such transitions. We show that this phenomenon can be used to qualitatively estimate the relative importance of the electron interaction compared to one particle potential and kinetic energies. Finally, we propose that a weak tip Coulomb blockade micrograph focusing on the transition between electron number N=0 and N=1 states may be used to experimentally map the one-particle potential landscape produced by impurities and inhomogeneities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Matter Wave Scattering from Ultracold Atoms in an Optical Lattice

We study matter wave scattering from an ultracold, many body atomic system trapped in an optical lattice. We determine the angular cross section that a matter wave probe sees and show that it is strongly affected by the many body phase, superfluid or Mott insulator, of the target lattice. We determine these cross sections analytically in the first Born approximation, and we examine the variation at intermediate points in the phase transition by numerically diagonalizing the Bose Hubbard Hamiltonian for a small lattice. We show that matter wave scattering offers a convenient method for non-destructively probing the quantum many body phase transition of atoms in an optical lattice.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

The quantum Hall effect under the influence of a top-gate and integrating AC lock-in measurements

Low frequency AC-measurements are commonly used to determine the voltage and currents through mesoscopic devices. We calculate the effect of the alternating Hall voltage on the recorded time-averaged voltage in the presence of a top-gate covering a large part of the device. The gate is kept on a constant voltage, while the Hall voltage is recorded using an integrating alternating-current lock-in technique. The resulting Hall curves show inflection points at the arithmetic mean between two integer plateaus, which are not necessarily related to the distribution of the density of states within a Landau level.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Half integer features in the quantum Hall Effect: experiment and theory

The quantum Hall effect is one of the most important developments in condensed matter physics of the 20th century. The standard explanations of the famous integer quantized Hall plateaus in the transverse resistivity are qualitative, and involve assumptions about disorder, localized states, extended states, edge states, Fermi levels pinned by Landau levels, etc. These standard narratives give plausible reasons for the existence of the plateaus, but provide little in the way of even a qualitative understanding of the shape and width of the Hall plateaus, much less a first principles calculation. The injection model presented in this paper changes that situation. Rather than focusing on the middle of the Hall device, we follow the electrons to their source: one corner of the Hall bar and its steep electric field gradients. We find the entire resistivity curve including the Hall plateaus is calculable as a function of magnetic field, temperature, and current. The new higher current experiments reported here show remarkable half integer features for the first time; these are faithfully reproduced by the injection theory. The Hall plateaus and half integer inflections are shown to result from the local density of states appropriate to the magnetic field and the strong electric field gradient at the injection corner.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Semiclassical investigation of revival phenomena in one dimensional system

In a quantum revival, a localized wavepacket re-forms or "revives" into a compact reincarnation of itself long after it has spread in an unruly fashion over a region restricted only by the potential energy. This is a purely quantum phenomenon, which has no classical analog. Quantum revival, and Anderson localization, are members of a small class of subtle interference effects resulting in a quantum distribution radically different from the classical after long time evolution under classically nonlinear evolution. However it is not clear that semiclassical methods, which start with the classical density and add interference effects, are in fact capable of capturing the revival phenomenon. Here we investigate two different one dimensional systems, the infinite square well and Morse potential. In both cases, after a long time the underlying classical manifolds are spread rather uniformly over phase space and are correspondingly spread in coordinate space, yet the semiclassical amplitudes are able to destructively interfere over most of coordinate space and constructively interfere in a small region, correctly reproducing a quantum revival. Further implications of this ability are discussed.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Quantum quasiresonances in grazing incident angle atom-surface collisions

The momentum transfer between the normal components to an index direction in the collision of an atom with a periodic surface is investigated. For fast atoms with grazing angle of incidence there is an interval of azimuthal angles around the index direction for which the energy transfer can be very efficient. This effect is reflected in quantum diffraction patterns with large non-specular peaks, associated with the parallel to the surface and normal to the index direction momentum component, and can be described in terms of quasiresonance. Although the classical dynamics does not reproduce the precise quantum diffraction probabilities, indicating the quantum nature of this effect, classical and quantum computations show that the span of the quasiresonance region coincides in both dynamics and can be classically estimated from the phase-space analysis.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Simulation of open quantum systems

We present an approach for the semiclassical treatment of open quantum systems. An expansion into localized states allows restriction of a simulation to a fraction of the environment that is located within a predefined vicinity of the system. Adding and dropping environmental particles during the simulation yields an effective reduction of the size of the system that is being treated.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Recoil Free Scattering From a Free Gas

We present a treatment of decoherence in an atom due to scattering from a gas of free particles. We show that there is a recoil free scattering process that leaves both the atom and the gas in an unchanged state, but allows for the acquisition of a phase shift that remains in the free space limit. This is essential to understanding decoherence in a separated arm atom interferometer, where a gas of atoms forms a refractive medium for a matter wave. Our work clarifies the extent to which scattering of a free particle acts as a which-way measurement.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2008

An efficient and accurate method to obtain the energy-dependent Green function for general potentials

Time-dependent quantum mechanics provides an intuitive picture of particle propagation in external fields. Semiclassical methods link the classical trajectories of particles with their quantum mechanical propagation. Many analytical results and a variety of numerical methods have been developed to solve the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. The time-dependent methods work for nearly arbitrarily shaped potentials, including sources and sinks via complex-valued potentials. Many quantities are measured at fixed energy, which is seemingly not well suited for a time-dependent formulation. Very few methods exist to obtain the energy-dependent Green function for complicated potentials without resorting to ensemble averages or using certain lead-in arrangements. Here, we demonstrate in detail a time-dependent approach, which can accurately and effectively construct the energy-dependent Green function for very general potentials. The applications of the method are numerous, including chemical, mesoscopic, and atomic physics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Inflationary dynamics for matrix eigenvalue problems

Many fields of science and engineering require finding eigenvalues and eigenvectors of large matrices. The solutions can represent oscillatory modes of a bridge, a violin, the disposition of electrons around an atom or molecule, the acoustic modes of a concert hall, or hundreds of other physical quantities. Often only the few eigenpairs with the lowest or highest frequency (extremal solutions) are needed. Methods that have been developed over the past 60 years to solve such problems include the Lanczos [1,2] algorithm, Jacobi-Davidson techniques [3], and the conjugate gradient method [4]. Here we present a way to solve the extremal eigenvalue/eigenvector problem, turning it into a nonlinear classical mechanical system with a modified Lagrangian constraint. The constraint induces exponential inflationary growth of the desired extremal solutions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Spin-orbit induced interference in quantum corrals

Lack of inversion symmetry at a metallic surface can lead to an observable spin-orbit interaction. For certain metal surfaces, such as the Au(111) surface, the experimentally observed spin-orbit coupling results in spin rotation lengths on the order of tens of nanometers, which is the typical length scale associated with quantum corral structures formed on metal surfaces. In this work, multiple scattering theory is used to calculate the local density of states (LDOS) of quantum corral structures comprised of nonmagnetic adatoms in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. Contrary to previous theoretical predictions, spin-orbit coupling induced modulations are observed in the theoretical LDOS, which should be observable using scanning tunneling microscopy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Investigating interaction-induced chaos using time-dependent density functional theory

Systems whose underlying classical dynamics are chaotic exhibit signatures of the chaos in their quantum mechanics. We investigate the possibility of using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to study the case when chaos is induced by electron-interaction alone. Nearest-neighbour level-spacing statistics are in principle exactly and directly accessible from TDDFT. We discuss how the TDDFT linear response procedure can reveal the mechanism of chaos induced by electron-interaction alone. A simple model of a two-electron quantum dot highlights the necessity to go beyond the adiabatic approximation in TDDFT.

cond-mat.other↗