Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Rosa López

Publications and source records attributed to Rosa López.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Quantum Kinetic Uncertainty Relations in Mesoscopic Conductors at Strong Coupling

Kinetic Uncertainty Relations (KURs) set fundamental limits on the precision of nonequilibrium transport by bounding the signal-to-noise ratio of currents in terms of the dynamical activity, a quantity that counts exchange events between a system and its reservoirs. This framework is well established in the weak-coupling regime, where transport occurs via well-defined, particle-like tunneling processes. At strong coupling, however, quantum coherence challenges both the validity of standard KURs and the notion of activity itself. In this Letter, we introduce a generalized definition of dynamical activity valid at arbitrary system-reservoir coupling, and show that it leads to a breakdown of standard KURs at strong coupling. Building on this result, we derive and prove a novel uncertainty relation, denoted Quantum KUR (QKUR), which provides a genuine quantum extension of KUR, accounting for intrinsic quantum coherent contributions of the generalized activity. We demonstrate that the generalized activity reduces to the standard master equation definition in the weak-coupling regime for generic systems of $N$ coupled quantum dots described by a quadratic Hamiltonian, and analyze the resulting QKUR bound in paradigmatic quantum-coherent mesoscopic devices, including single- and double-quantum dot systems and a quantum point contact.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Transport in magnetic-topological-insulator nanoribbons containing multiple superconductor-proximitized sectors

Transport in devices with multiple proximitized sectors depends heavily on the complex phases of the pairing gaps of those sectors. We investigate magnetic topological insulator nanoribbons in two- and three-terminal setups with proximitized sectors and asymptotic normal leads. Our focus is on the regime of single chiral Majoranas. The characteristic electric and thermal interferometries of chiral Majoranas can be controlled by the complex phases of the pairing. We predict an AC Majorana effect, in which phase dynamics induced by a voltage bias generate measurable time-dependent conductance oscillations. A three-terminal junction with superconducting islands can be used as a Majorana router when the relative complex phases are configured.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Thermodynamic uncertainty relations in superconducting junctions

Quantum conductors attached to metallic reservoirs have been demonstrated to overcome the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR), a trade-off relation between the amount of dissipation and the absence of charge and heat current fluctuations. Here, we report large TUR violations when superconducting reservoirs replace metallic ones. The coexistence of different transport processes, namely (multiple) Andreev reflection, where electrons and their retro-reflected holes create Cooper pairs, in addition to the normal quasiparticle transport is identified as the source for such TUR breakdowns. The large TUR violation is a remarkable advantage for building low dissipative and highly stable quantum thermal machines.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

High-Efficiency Thermoelectric Transport in Aharonov-Bohm-Casher Rings

Quantum heat engines are nanoscale devices that convert heat into work by exploiting quantum effects, such as coherence and interference. Previous studies of these devices did not consider spin-dependent effects, which can influence the thermoelectric performance of the engine. In this work, we study the thermoelectric behavior of a quantum heat engine based on an Aharonov-Bohm ring - a mesoscopic ring where electrons exhibit interference depending on the magnetic flux it encloses - incorporating Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI), which couples the electron's motion and spin. We find that Rashba SOI enhances the figure of merit $ZT$, measure of the engine's conversion efficiency. Our results suggest that controlling spin-dependent interference could lead to improvements in the fabrication of efficient thermoelectric devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Entanglement Generation and Stabilization by Coherent Collisions

Collision is a useful tool for revealing quantum effects and realizing quantum informational tasks. We demonstrate that repeated collisions by itinerant electrons can dissipatively drive two remote spin qubits into an entangled state in a generic collisional framework. A coherent spin exchange with either qubit facilitates entanglement generation. When combined with proper local driving, these collisions induce an entangled steady state in most collision configurations. Particularly, the collision which is symmetric for the two qubits results in a unique steady state close to a maximally entangled state. Due to the dissipative nature of the process, the entanglement persists in the presence of decoherence, provided the collision frequency exceeds the decoherence rate. Our model can be experimentally implemented using single-electron sources.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Conditional fluctuation theorems and entropy production for monitored quantum systems under imperfect detection

The thermodynamic behavior of Markovian open quantum systems can be described at the level of fluctuations by using continuous monitoring approaches. However, practical applications require assessing imperfect detection schemes, where the definition of main thermodynamic quantities becomes subtle and universal fluctuation relations are unknown. Here, we fill this gap by deriving a universal fluctuation relation that links thermodynamic entropy production and information-theoretical irreversibility along single trajectories in inefficient monitoring setups. This relation provides as a corollary an irreversibility estimator of dissipation using imperfect detection records that lower bounds the underlying entropy production at the level of visible trajectories. We illustrate our findings with a driven-dissipative two-level system following quantum jump trajectories and discuss the experimental applicability of our results for thermodynamic inference.

quant-ph↗

Phase-controlled heat modulation with Aharonov-Bohm interferometers

A heat modulator is proposed based on a voltage-biased Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. Once an electrical bias is applied, Peltier effects give rise to a flow of heat that can be modulated by a magnetic flux. We determine the corresponding temperature changes using a simple thermal model. Our calculations demonstrate that the modulated temperature difference can be as large as 80 mK at base temperature about 600 mK with relative temperature variations reaching 10\%. Our model also predicts, quite generally, the emergence of spin-polarized heat flows without any ferromagnetic contacts, if Rashba spin-orbit interaction is combined with the applied magnetic flux, which potentially paves the way towards caloritronic information processing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Characterizing and Mitigating Timing Noise-Induced Decoherence in Single Electron Sources

Identifying and controlling decoherence in single electron sources (SES) is important for their applications in quantum information processing. The recent experiments with ultrashort electron pulses [J. D. Fletcher et al., Nat. Commun. 10, 5298 (2019)] demonstrate strong decoherence that cannot be caused by traditional mechanisms such as electron-electron or electron-phonon interactions. Here we propose timing noise as a universal model, consistent with existing experimental data, to explain strong decoherence of ultrafast SES pulses, without resorting to any specific microscopic mechanism for such decoherence. We also propose a protocol to filter out timing noise which works even in the presence of other decoherence effects, such as those present in, e.g., low-energy SESs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Heat and charge transport in interacting nanoconductors driven by time-modulated temperatures

We investigate the quantum transport of the heat and the charge through a quantum dot coupled to fermionic contacts under the influence of time modulation of temperatures. We derive, within the nonequilibrium Keldysh Green's function formalism, generic formulas for the charge and heat currents by extending the concept of gravitational field introduced by Luttinger to the dynamically driven system and by identifying the correct form of dynamical contact energy. In linear response regime our formalism is validated from satisfying the Onsager reciprocity relations and demonstrates its utility to reveal nontrivial dynamical effects of the Coulomb interaction on charge and energy relaxations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Quantum-enhanced performance in superconducting Andreev-reflection engines

When a quantum dot is attached to a metallic reservoir and a superconducting contact Andreev processes leads to a finite subgap current at the normal lead and the creation or destruction of Cooper pairs. Andreev-reflection engines profit from the destruction of Cooper pairs to provide the work needed to set a charge current at the normal-conductor contact generating electrical power. For this power-transduction device high power and large efficiencies in quantum-mechanically enhanced regimes are demonstrated. There thermodynamic trade-off relations between power, efficiency and stability, valid for any classical engine are overcome, and kinetic constraints on the engine precision are largely surpassed in arbitrary far from equilibrium conditions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Conductance of electrostatic wire junctions in bilayer graphene

The conductance of electrostatic wire junctions in bilayer graphene, classified as trivial-trivial or trivial-topological regarding the confinement character on each junction side, is calculated. The topological side always corresponds to a kink-antikink system, as required for a proper connection with a trivial side. We report a conductance quench of the trivial-topological junction, with a conductance {\it near} quantization to $4e^2/h$, which is only half of the maximum value allowed by the Chern number of a kink-antikink system. The analysis allowed us to uncover the existence of a chiral edge mode in the trivial wire under quite general conditions. A double junction, trivial-topological-trivial, displays periodic Fano-like conductance resonances (dips or peaks) induced by the created topological loop.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Beating Carnot efficiency with periodically driven chiral conductors

Classically, the power generated by an ideal thermal machine cannot be larger than the Carnot limit. This profound result is rooted in the second law of thermodynamics. A hot question is whether this bound is still valid for microengines operating far from equilibrium. Here, we demonstrate that a quantum chiral conductor driven by AC voltage can indeed work with efficiencies much larger than the Carnot bound. The system also extracts work from common temperature baths, violating Kelvin-Planck statement. Nonetheless, with the proper definition, entropy production is always positive and the second law is preserved. The crucial ingredients to obtain efficiencies beyond the Carnot limit are: i) irreversible entropy production by the photoassisted excitation processes due to the AC field and ii) absence of power injection thanks to chirality. Our results are relevant in view of recent developments that use small conductors to test the fundamental limits of thermodynamic engines.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Quantum Consensus Dynamics by Entangling Maxwell Demon

We introduce a Maxwell demon which generates many-body entanglement robustly against bit-flip noises, which allows us to obtain quantum advantage. Adopting the protocol of the voter model used for opinion dynamics approaching consensus, the demon randomly selects a qubit pair and performs a quantum feedback control, in continuous repetitions. We derive upper bounds of the entropy reduction and the work extraction rates by demon's operation, which are determined by a competition between the quantum-classical mutual information acquired by the demon and the absolute irreversibility of the feedback control. Our finding of the upper bounds corresponds to a reformulation of the second law of thermodynamics under a class of Maxwell demon which generates many-body entanglement in a working substance.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

A chiral Maxwell Demon

We investigate the role of chirality on the performance of a Maxwell demon implemented in a quantum Hall bar with a localized impurity. Within a stochastic thermodynamics description we investigate the ability of such a demon to drive a current against a bias. We show that the ability of the demon to perform is directly related to its ability to extract information from the system. The key features of the proposed Maxwell demon are the topological properties of the quantum Hall system. The asymmetry of the electronic interactions felt at the localized state when the magnetic field is reversed joined to the fact that we consider energy dependent (and asymmetric) tunneling barriers that connect such state with the Hall edge modes allow the demon to properly work.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Dynamical Coulomb blockade of thermal transport

The role of energy exchange between a quantum system and its environment is investigated from the perspective of the Onsager conductance matrix. We consider the thermoelectric linear transport of an interacting quantum dot coupled to two terminals under the influence of an electrical potential and a thermal bias. We implement in our model the effect of coupling to electromagnetic environmental modes created by nearby electrons within the P(E)-theory of dynamical Coulomb blockade. Our findings relate the lack of some symmetries among the Onsager matrix coefficients with an enhancement of the efficiency at maximum power and the occurrence of the heat rectification phenomenon.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Cotunneling drag effect in Coulomb-coupled quantum dots

In Coulomb drag, a current flowing in one conductor can induce a voltage across an adjacent conductor via the Coulomb interaction. The mechanisms yielding drag effects are not always understood, even though drag effects are sufficiently general to be seen in many low-dimensional systems. In this Letter, we observe Coulomb drag in a Coulomb-coupled double quantum dot (CC-DQD) and, through both experimental and theoretical arguments, identify cotunneling as essential to obtaining a correct qualitative understanding of the drag behavior.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Majorana mode stacking, robustness and size effect in cylindrical nanowires

We discuss the robustness of Majorana edge modes in a finite quantum nanowire of cylindrical shape. The nanowire is modeled as a bidimensional cylindrical shell of semiconductor material with proximity-induced superconductivity and an intrinsic Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The latter is characterized by effective electric and magnetic fields in transverse direction of the nanowire. An applied external magnetic field pointing in an arbitrary orientation is also assumed. The numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian allows us to study the spectrum of the nanowire for different experimental configurations. The Majorana modes prove robust against tilting of the magnetic field away from the cylinder longitudinal axis, if the tilt direction is perpendicular to the effective spin-orbit magnetic field, but fragile otherwise. On the other hand, we find an increasing number of Majorana modes in the same cylinder edge for increasing values of the nanowire radius. We refer to this phenomenon as "stacking effect" and it occurs due to the orthogonality between Majorana mode wave functions. In this manner, different Majoranas take complementary positions on the nanowire surface.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Magnetic-field asymmetry of nonlinear thermoelectric and heat transport

Nonlinear transport coefficients do not obey, in general, reciprocity relations. We here discuss the magnetic-field asymmetries that arise in thermoelectric and heat transport of mesoscopic systems. Based on a scattering theory of weakly nonlinear transport, we analyze the leading-order symmetry parameters in terms of the screening potential response to either voltage or temperature shifts. We apply our general results to a quantum Hall antidot system. Interestingly, we find that certain symmetry parameters show a dependence on the measurement configuration.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗