arXiv subjects

Luca Banszerus

Publications and source records attributed to Luca Banszerus.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Probing charge noise in bilayer graphene quantum dots by Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg-Majorana spectroscopy

Charge noise is an important factor limiting qubit coherence and relaxation in solid-state devices. In bilayer graphene (BLG) quantum dots, recently established as a promising platform for spin- and valley-based qubits, both the origin and magnitude of charge noise remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigate high-frequency charge noise using Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg-Majorana (LZSM) interference spectroscopy. We study a single-particle charge qubit formed in a BLG double quantum dot at frequencies between 5 and 10 GHz and extract a noise spectral density $S_\varepsilon$ on the order of 0.5-0.9 neV$/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. This is comparable to values reported for III-V semiconductor platforms and silicon. From the temperature and frequency dependence of the charge qubit decoherence, we conclude that thermal (Johnson) noise or electron-phonon coupling dominates over two-level fluctuators.

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arXiv2025

The role of antisymmetric orbitals and electron-electron interactions on the two-particle spin and valley blockade in graphene double quantum dots

We report on an experimental study of spin and valley blockade in two-electron bilayer graphene (BLG) double quantum dots (DQDs) and explore the limits set by asymmetric orbitals and electronelectron interactions. The results obtained from magnetotransport measurements on two-electron BLG DQDs, where the resonant tunneling transport involves both orbital symmetric and antisymmetric two-particle states, show a rich level spectrum. We observe a magnetic field tunable spin and valley blockade, which is limited by the orbital splitting, the strength of the electron-electron interaction and the difference in the valley g-factors between the symmetric and antisymmetric twoparticle orbital states. Our conclusions are supported by simulations based on rate equations, which allow the identification of prominent interdot transitions associated with the transition from single to two-particle states observed in the experiment.

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arXiv2024

Gate-defined single-electron transistors in twisted bilayer graphene

Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) near the magic angle is a unique platform where the combination of topology and strong correlations gives rise to exotic electronic phases. These phases are gate-tunable and related to the presence of flat electronic bands, isolated by single-particle band gaps. This enables gate-controlled charge confinement, essential for the operation of single-electron transistors (SETs), and allows to explore the interplay of confinement, electron interactions, band renormalisation and the moir\'e superlattice, potentially revealing key paradigms of strong correlations. Here, we present gate-defined SETs in near-magic-angle tBLG with well-tunable Coulomb blockade resonances. These SETs allow to study magnetic field-induced quantum oscillations in the density of states of the source-drain reservoirs, providing insight into gate-tunable Fermi surfaces of tBLG. Comparison with tight-binding calculations highlights the importance of displacement-field-induced band renormalisation crucial for future advanced gate-tunable quantum devices and circuits in tBLG including e.g. quantum dots and Josephson junction arrays.

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arXiv2024

Phonon-limited valley life times in single-particle bilayer graphene quantum dots

The valley degree of freedom in 2D semiconductors, such as gapped bilayer graphene (BLG) and transition metal dichalcogenides, is a promising carrier of quantum information in the emerging field of valleytronics. While valley dynamics have been extensively studied for moderate band gap 2D~semiconductors using optical spectroscopy techniques, very little is known about valley lifetimes in narrow band gap BLG, which is difficult to study using optical techniques. Here, we report single-particle valley relaxation times ($T_1$) exceeding several microseconds in electrostatically defined BLG quantum dots (QDs) using a pulse-gating technique. The observed dependence of $T_1$ on perpendicular magnetic field can be understood qualitatively and quantitatively by a model in which $T_1$ is limited by electron-phonon coupling. We identify the coupling to acoustic phonons via the bond length change and via the deformation potential as the limiting mechanisms.

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arXiv2023

Tuning the supercurrent distribution in parallel ballistic graphene Josephson junctions

We report on a ballistic and fully tunable Josephson junction system consisting of two parallel ribbons of graphene in contact with superconducting MoRe. By electrostatic gating of the two individual graphene ribbons we gain control over the real space distribution of the superconducting current density, which can be continuously tuned between both ribbons. We extract the respective gate dependent spatial distributions of the real space current density by employing Fourier- and Hilbert transformations of the magnetic field induced modulation of the critical current. This approach is fast and does not rely on a symmetric current profile. It is therefore a universally applicable tool, potentially useful for carefully adjusting Josephson junctions.

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arXiv2023

Impact of competing energy scales on the shell-filling sequence in elliptic bilayer graphene quantum dots

We report on a detailed investigation of the shell-filling sequence in electrostatically defined elliptic bilayer graphene quantum dots (QDs) in the regime of low charge carrier occupation, $N \leq 12$, by means of magnetotransport spectroscopy and numerical calculations. We show the necessity of including both short-range electron-electron interaction and wavefunction-dependent valley g-factors for understanding the overall fourfold shell-filling sequence. These factors lead to an additional energy splitting at half-filling of each orbital state and different energy shifts in out-of-plane magnetic fields. Analysis of 31 different BLG QDs reveals that both valley g-factor and electron-electron interaction induced energy splitting increase with decreasing QD size, validating theory. However, we find that the electrostatic charging energy of such gate-defined QDs does not correlate consistently with their size, indicating complex electrostatics. These findings offer significant insights for future BLG QD devices and circuit designs.

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arXiv2023

Coherent Charge Oscillations in a Bilayer Graphene Double Quantum Dot

The coherent dynamics of a quantum mechanical two-level system passing through an anti-crossing of two energy levels can give rise to Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg-Majorana (LZSM) interference. LZSM interference spectroscopy has proven to be a fruitful tool to investigate charge noise and charge decoherence in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). Recently, bilayer graphene has developed as a promising platform to host highly tunable QDs potentially useful for hosting spin and valley qubits. So far, in this system no coherent oscillations have been observed and little is known about charge noise in this material. Here, we report coherent charge oscillations and $T_2^*$ charge decoherence times in a bilayer graphene double QD. The charge decoherence times are measured independently using LZSM interference and photon assisted tunneling. Both techniques yield $T_2^*$ average values in the range of 400 to 500 ps. The observation of charge coherence allows to study the origin and spectral distribution of charge noise in future experiments.

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arXiv2023

Particle-hole symmetry protects spin-valley blockade in graphene quantum dots

Particle-hole symmetry plays an important role for the characterization of topological phases in solid-state systems. It is found, for example, in free-fermion systems at half filling, and it is closely related to the notion of antiparticles in relativistic field theories. In the low energy limit, graphene is a prime example of a gapless particle-hole symmetric system described by an effective Dirac equation, where topological phases can be understood by studying ways to open a gap by preserving (or breaking) symmetries. An important example is the intrinsic Kane-Mele spin-orbit gap of graphene, which leads to a lifting of the spin-valley degeneracy and renders graphene a topological insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase, while preserving particle-hole symmetry. Here, we show that bilayer graphene allows realizing electron-hole double quantum-dots that exhibit nearly perfect particle-hole symmetry, where transport occurs via the creation and annihilation of single electron-hole pairs with opposite quantum numbers. Moreover, we show that this particle-hole symmetry results in a protected single-particle spin-valley blockade. The latter will allow robust spin-to-charge conversion and valley-to-charge conversion, which is essential for the operation of spin and valley qubits.

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arXiv2022

Probing two-electron multiplets in bilayer graphene quantum dots

We report on finite bias spectroscopy measurements of the two-electron spectrum in a gate defined bilayer graphene (BLG) quantum dot for varying magnetic fields. The spin and valley degree of freedom in BLG give rise to multiplets of 6 orbital symmetric and 10 orbital anti-symmetric states. We find that orbital symmetric states are lower in energy and separated by $\approx 0.4 - 0.8$ meV from orbital anti-symmetric states. The symmetric multiplet exhibits an additional energy splitting of its 6 states of $\approx 0.15 - 0.5$ meV due to lattice scale interactions. The experimental observations are supported by theoretical calculations, which allow to determine that inter-valley scattering and 'current-current' interaction constants are of the same magnitude in BLG.

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arXiv2021

Spin-valley coupling in single-electron bilayer graphene quantum dots

Understanding how the electron spin is coupled to orbital degrees of freedom, such as a valley degree of freedom in solid-state systems is central to applications in spin-based electronics and quantum computation. Recent developments in the preparation of electrostatically-confined quantum dots in gapped bilayer graphene (BLG) enables to study the low-energy single-electron spectra in BLG quantum dots, which is crucial for potential spin and spin-valley qubit operations. Here, we present the observation of the spin-valley coupling in a bilayer graphene quantum dot in the single-electron regime. By making use of a highly-tunable double quantum dot device we achieve an energy resolution allowing us to resolve the lifting of the fourfold spin and valley degeneracy by a Kane-Mele type spin-orbit coupling of $\approx 65~μ$eV. Also, we find an upper limit of a potentially disorder-induced mixing of the $K$ and $K'$ states below $20~μ$eV.

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arXiv2021

Exploiting Aharonov-Bohm oscillations to probe Klein tunneling in tunable pn-junctions in graphene

One of the unique features of graphene is that the Fermi wavelength of its charge carriers can be tuned electrostatically over a wide range. This allows in principle to tune the transparency of a pn-junction electrostatically, as this depends on the ratio between the physical extension of the junction and the electron wavelength, i.e. on the effective width of the junction itself. However, this simple idea - which would allow to switch smoothly between a Veselago lens and a Klein-collimator - has proved to be difficult to demonstrate experimentally because of the limited amount of independently-tunable parameters available in most setups. In this work, we present transport measurements in a quasi-ballistic Aharonov-Bohm graphene ring with gate tunable pn-junctions in one arm, and show that the interference patterns provide unambiguous information on the Klein tunneling efficiency and on the junctions effective width. We find a gate-controlled transparency of the pn-junctions ranging from 35-100%. Our results are in excellent agreement with a semiclassical description.

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arXiv2021

Minigap and Andreev bound states in ballistic graphene

A finite-size normal conductor, proximity-coupled to a superconductor has been predicted to exhibit a so-called minigap, in which quasiparticle excitations are prohibited. Here, we report on the direct observation of such a minigap in ballistic graphene, coupled to superconducting MoRe leads. The minigap is probed by finite bias spectroscopy through a weakly coupled junction in the graphene region and its value is given by the dimensions of the device. Besides the minigap, we observe a distinct peak in the differential resistance, which we attribute to weakly coupled Andreev bound states (ABS) located near the superconductor-graphene interface. For weak magnetic fields, the phase accumulated in the normal-conducting region shifts the ABS in quantitative agreement with predictions from tight-binding calculations based on the Bogolioubov-de Gennes equation as well as with an analytical semiclassical model.

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arXiv2021

Hot-Carrier Cooling in High-Quality Graphene is Intrinsically Limited by Optical Phonons

Many promising optoelectronic devices, such as broadband photodetectors, nonlinear frequency converters, and building blocks for data communication systems, exploit photoexcited charge carriers in graphene. For these systems, it is essential to understand, and eventually control, the cooling dynamics of the photoinduced hot-carrier distribution. There is, however, still an active debate on the different mechanisms that contribute to hot-carrier cooling. In particular, the intrinsic cooling mechanism that ultimately limits the cooling dynamics remains an open question. Here, we address this question by studying two technologically relevant systems, consisting of high-quality graphene with a mobility >10,000 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ and environments that do not efficiently take up electronic heat from graphene: WSe$_2$-encapsulated graphene and suspended graphene. We study the cooling dynamics of these two high-quality graphene systems using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy at room temperature. Cooling via disorder-assisted acoustic phonon scattering and out-of-plane heat transfer to the environment is relatively inefficient in these systems, predicting a cooling time of tens of picoseconds. However, we observe much faster cooling, on a timescale of a few picoseconds. We attribute this to an intrinsic cooling mechanism, where carriers in the hot-carrier distribution with enough kinetic energy emit optical phonons. During phonon emission, the electronic system continuously re-thermalizes, re-creating carriers with enough energy to emit optical phonons. We develop an analytical model that explains the observed dynamics, where cooling is eventually limited by optical-to-acoustic phonon coupling. These fundamental insights into the intrinsic cooling mechanism of hot carriers in graphene will play a key role in guiding the development of graphene-based optoelectronic devices.

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arXiv2021

Dispersive sensing of charge states in a bilayer graphene quantum dot

We demonstrate dispersive readout of individual charge states in a gate-defined few-electron quantum dot in bilayer graphene. We employ a radio frequency reflectometry circuit, where an LC resonator with a resonance frequency close to 280 MHz is directly coupled to an ohmic contact of the quantum dot device. The detection scheme based on changes in the quantum capacitance operates over a wide gate-voltage range and allows to probe excited states down to the single-electron regime. Crucially, the presented sensing technique avoids the use of an additional, capacitively coupled quantum device such as a quantum point contact or single electron transistor, making dispersive sensing particularly interesting for gate-defined graphene quantum dots.

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arXiv2021

Pulsed-gate spectroscopy of single-electron spin states in bilayer graphene quantum dots

Graphene and bilayer graphene quantum dots are promising hosts for spin qubits with long coherence times. Although recent technological improvements make it possible to confine single electrons electrostatically in bilayer graphene quantum dots, and their spin and valley texture of the single particle spectrum has been studied in detail, their relaxation dynamics remains still unexplored. Here, we report on transport through a high-frequency gate controlled single-electron bilayer graphene quantum dot. By transient current spectroscopy of single-electron spin states, we extract a lower bound of the spin relaxation time of 0.5~$μ$s. This result represents an important step towards the investigation of spin coherence times in graphene-based quantum dots and the implementation of spin-qubits.

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arXiv2020

Tunable interdot coupling in few-electron bilayer graphene double quantum dots

We present a highly controllable double quantum dot device based on bilayer graphene. Using a device architecture of interdigitated gate fingers, we can control the interdot tunnel coupling between 1 to 4 GHz and the mutual capacitive coupling between 0.2 and 0.6 meV, independently of the charge occupation of the quantum dots. The charging energy and hence the dot size remains nearly unchanged. The tuning range of the tunnel coupling covers the operating regime of typical silicon and GaAs spin qubit devices.

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arXiv2020

Electron-hole crossover in gate-controlled bilayer graphene quantum dots

Electron and hole Bloch states in gapped bilayer graphene exhibit topological orbital magnetic moments with opposite signs near the band edges, which allows for tunable valley-polarization in an out-of-plane magnetic field. This intrinsic property makes electron and hole quantum dots (QDs) in bilayer graphene interesting for valley and spin-valley qubits. Here we show measurements of the electron-hole crossover in a bilayer graphene QD, demonstrating the opposite sign of the orbital magnetic moments associated with the Berry curvature. Using three layers of metallic top gates, we independently control the tunneling barriers of the QD while tuning the occupation from the few-hole regime to the few-electron regime, crossing the displacement-field controlled band gap. The band gap is around 25 meV, while the charging energies of the electron and hole dots are between 3-5 meV. The extracted valley g-factor is around 17 and leads to opposite valley polarization for electron and hole states at moderate B-fields. Our measurements agree well with tight-binding calculations for our device.

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arXiv2020

Electrostatic detection of Shubnikov-de-Haas oscillations in bilayer graphene by Coulomb resonances in gate-defined quantum dots

A gate-defined quantum dot in bilayer graphene is utilized as a sensitive electrometer for probing the charge density of its environment. Under the influence of a perpendicular magnetic field, the charge carrier density of the channel region next to the quantum dot oscillates due to the formation of Landau levels. This is experimentally observed as oscillations in the gate-voltage positions of the Coulomb resonances of the nearby quantum dot. From the frequency of the oscillations, we extract the charge carrier density in the channel and from the amplitude the shift of the quantum dot potential. We compare these experimental results with an electrostatic simulation of the device and find good agreement.

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