arXiv subjects

F. Dolcini

Publications and source records attributed to F. Dolcini.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Coherent charge and spin oscillations induced by local quenches in nanowires with spin-orbit coupling

When a local and attractive potential is quenched in a nanowire, the spectrum changes its topology from a purely continuum to a continuum and discrete portion. We show that, under appropriate conditions, this quench leads to stable coherent oscillations in the observables time evolution. In particular, we demonstrate that ballistic nanowires with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) exposed to a uniform magnetic field are especially suitable to observe this effect. Indeed, while in ordinary nanowires the effect occurs only if the strength $U_0$ of the attractive potential is sufficiently strong, even a weak value of $U_0$ is sufficient in SOC nanowires. Furthermore, in these systems coherent oscillations in the spin sector can be generated and controlled electrically by quenching the gate voltage acting on the charge sector. We interpret the origin of this phenomenon, analyze the effect of variation of the chemical potential and the switching time of the quenched attractive potential, and address possible implementation schemes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Weak Localization in Electric-Double-Layer Gated Few-layer Graphene

We induce surface carrier densities up to $\sim7\cdot 10^{14}$cm$^{-2}$ in few-layer graphene devices by electric double layer gating with a polymeric electrolyte. In 3-, 4- and 5-layer graphene below 20-30K we observe a logarithmic upturn of resistance that we attribute to weak localization in the diffusive regime. By studying this effect as a function of carrier density and with ab-initio calculations we derive the dependence of transport, intervalley and phase coherence scattering lifetimes on total carrier density. We find that electron-electron scattering in the Nyquist regime is the main source of dephasing at temperatures lower than 30K in the $\sim10^{13}$cm$^{-2}$ to $\sim7 \cdot 10^{14}$cm$^{-2}$ range of carrier densities. With the increase of gate voltage, transport elastic scattering is dominated by the competing effects due to the increase in both carrier density and charged scattering centers at the surface. We also tune our devices into a crossover regime between weak and strong localization, indicating that simultaneous tunability of both carrier and defect density at the surface of electric double layer gated materials is possible.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Electron-phonon coupling in metallic carbon nanotubes: Dispersionless electron propagation despite dissipation

A recent study [Rosati, Dolcini, and Rossi, Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 243101 (2015)] has predicted that, while in semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) an electronic wave packet experiences the typical spatial diffusion of conventional materials, in metallic SWNTs its shape remains essentially unaltered up to micron distances at room temperature, even in the presence of the electron-phonon coupling. Here, by utilizing a Lindblad-based density-matrix approach enabling us to account for both dissipation and decoherence effects, we test such prediction by analyzing various aspects that were so far unexplored. In particular, accounting for initial nonequilibrium excitations, characterized by an excess energy $E_0$, and including both intra- and interband phonon scattering, we show that for realistically high values of $E_0$ the electronic diffusion is extremely small and nearly independent of its energetic distribution, in spite of a significant energy-dissipation and decoherence dynamics. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the effect is robust with respect to the variation of the chemical potential. Our results thus suggest that metallic SWNTs are a promising platform to realise quantum channels for the non-dispersive transmission of electronic wave packets.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

A ballistic quantum ring Josephson interferometer

We report the realization of a ballistic Josephson interferometer. The interferometer is made by a quantum ring etched in a nanofabricated two-dimensional electron gas confined in an InAs-based heterostructure laterally contacted to superconducting niobium leads. The Josephson current flowing through the structure shows oscillations with h/e flux periodicity when threading the loop with a perpendicular magnetic field. This periodicity, in sharp contrast with the h/2e one observed in conventional dc superconducting quantum interference devices, confirms the ballistic nature of the device in agreement with theoretical predictions. This system paves the way for the implementation of interferometric Josephson pi-junctions, and for the investigation of Majorana fermions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Nanotransformation and current fluctuations in exciton condensate junctions

We analyze the nonlinear transport properties of a bilayer exciton condensate that is contacted by four metallic leads by calculating the full counting statistics of electron transport for arbitrary system parameters. Despite its formal similarity to a superconductor the transport properties of the exciton condensate turn out to be completely different. We recover the generic features of exciton condensates such as counterpropagating currents driven by excitonic Andreev reflections and make predictions for nonlinear transconductance between the layers as well as for the current (cross)correlations and generalized Johnson-Nyquist relationships. Finally, we explore the possibility of connecting another mesoscopic system (in our case a quantum point contact) to the bottom layer of the exciton condensate and show how the excitonic Andreev reflections can be used for transforming voltage at the nanoscale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Adiabatic Magnetization of Superconductors as a High-Performance Cooling Mechanism

The adiabatic magnetization of a superconductor is a cooling principle proposed in the 30s, which has never been exploited up to now. Here we present a detailed dynamic description of the effect, computing the achievable final temperatures as well as the process timescales for different superconductors in various regimes. We show that, although in the experimental conditions explored so far the method is in fact inefficient, a suitable choice of initial temperatures and metals can lead to unexpectedly large cooling effect, even in the presence of dissipative phenomena. Our results suggest that this principle can be re-envisaged today as a performing refrigeration method to access the microK regime in nanodevices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

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↗

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↗

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↗

arXiv2001

Exact thermodynamics of an Extended Hubbard Model of single and paired carriers in competition

By exploiting the technique of Sutherland's species, introduced in \cite{DOMO-RC}, we derive the exact spectrum and partition function of a 1D extended Hubbard model. The model describes a competition between dynamics of single carriers and short-radius pairs, as a function of on-site Coulomb repulsion ($U$) and filling ($ρ$). We provide the temperature dependence of chemical potential, compressibility, local magnetic moment, and specific heat. In particular the latter turns out to exhibit two peaks, both related to `charge' degrees of freedom. Their origin and behavior are analyzed in terms of kinetic and potential energy, both across the metal-insulator transition point and in the strong coupling regime.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2001

Results on the symmetries of integrable fermionic models on chains

We investigate integrable fermionic models within the scheme of the graded Quantum Inverse Scattering Method, and prove that any symmetry imposed on the solution of the Yang-Baxter Equation reflects on the constants of motion of the model; generalizations with respect to known results are discussed. This theorem is shown to be very effective when combined with the Polynomial $\Rc$-matrix Technique (PRT): we apply both of them to the study of the extended Hubbard models, for which we find all the subcases enjoying several kinds of (super)symmetries. In particular, we derive a geometrical construction expressing any $gl(2,1)$-invariant model as a linear combination of EKS and U-supersymmetric models. Furtherly, we use the PRT to obtain 32 integrable $so(4)$-invariant models. By joint use of the Sutherland's Species technique and $η$-pairs construction we propose a general method to derive their physical features, and we provide some explicit results.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Band and filling controlled transitions in exactly solved electronic models

We describe a general method to study the ground state phase diagram of electronic models on chains whose extended Hubbard hamiltonian is formed by a generalized permutator plus a band-controlling term. The method, based on the appropriate interpretation of Sutherland's species, yields under described conditions a reduction of the effective Hilbert space. In particular, we derive the phase diagrams of two new models; the first one exhibits a band-controlled insulator-superconductor transition at half-filling for the unusually high value $U_c=6 t$; the second one is characterized by a filling-controlled metal-insulator transition between two finite regions of the diagram.

cond-mat.str-el↗