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Thierry Martin

Publications and source records attributed to Thierry Martin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Current cross-correlations as probes for poor man's Majorana states

The minimal Kitaev chain that emulates a topological superconductor with three quantum dots offers a tunable platform for potentially hosting poor man's Majorana (PMM) modes. Asserting the need to go beyond differential conductance spectroscopy, we introduce current-current correlations as a viable framework for verifying their true non-locality. The robustness of the PMM modes, specifically with respect to delocalization as the system is tuned away from sweet spots, we show, is embedded in the relative magnitudes of the nonlocal transport processes. This aspect is adeptly captured by current cross-correlations, whose features show remarkable stability around the PMM sweet spot, specifically with respect to the detuning of an outer dot. We establish this as a prominent feature and a diagnostic for true PMMs even in the short chain limit. Our results accentuate the need for current cross-correlation measurements as a diagnostic framework for unambiguously verifying true non-locality of entangled states as well as topologically protected states.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Effect of inter-edge interaction in a quantum Hall collider

Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) colliders measure anyon exchange phases via time-domain braiding, but the $\nu=2/5$ state exhibits an intriguing negative Fano factor, challenging theoretical predictions. Here, we study the effect of inter-edge interactions in a multi-mode FQH collider. We demonstrate that the resulting fractionalization into eigenmodes causes the anyon beam to decompose into correlated and uncorrelated components, which have very distinct behavior in terms of time-domain braiding. We show that the uncorrelated part dominates in the long-junction limit, reversing the tunneling current sign and reproducing the observed negative Fano factor at $\nu=2/5$. Our results highlight the role of interactions and provide a robust interpretation of anyonic braiding in multi-mode systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometry at the $\nu=2/5$ fractional quantum Hall edge

We propose a Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometer for a $\nu=2/5$ fractional quantum Hall edge system, in which quasiparticles tunnel between two co-propagating edge modes. In contrast to the previously studied anyonic Fabry-P\'{e}rot and Mach-Zehnder interferometers, the proposed setup relies purely on two-particle interference rather than single-particle interference. In the weak-tunneling regime, we employ a bosonized edge theory together with Keldysh perturbation theory to evaluate the cross-correlation of the tunneling currents. In the large-device limit, we obtain an analytic expression for the flux-dependent noise, whose structure closely resembles that of an electronic HBT interferometer, but with the electron charge replaced by the fractional charge $e^{\star}=e/3$ and with scaling dimensions characteristic of the fractional edge modes. In this limit, the explicit anyonic exchange phases cancel, whereas when the device size becomes comparable to the thermal length, the cross-correlation may recover a more explicit dependence on the anyonic statistical angle.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Microwave response of fractional quantum Hall droplets with quasiparticle tunneling

We theoretically study microwave absorption spectroscopy of fractional quantum Hall droplets in the presence of quasiparticle tunneling across a quantum point contact. This contact-free probe provides access to collective edge dynamics beyond conventional transport measurements. We develop a nonperturbative path-integral Monte Carlo approach that enables computation of the frequency-dependent response at finite temperature and for arbitrary droplet geometries, and benchmark the method against analytical results in the weak-tunneling regime. We find that tunneling produces measurable shifts and broadening of resonance peaks, with systematic dependence on tunneling strength and device geometry. Such shifts and broadenings are not obtained in perturbative treatments acting directly on the response function, but emerge when interaction-kernel effects are properly incorporated. Our results indicate experimentally accessible signatures of edge-mode interference and tunneling-induced renormalization of collective excitations, and support the use of microwave spectroscopy as a quantitative probe of quasiparticle dynamics in mesoscopic quantum Hall structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Wide-Surface Furnace for In Situ X-Ray Diffraction of Combinatorial Samples using a High-Throughput Approach

The combinatorial approach applied to functional oxides has enabled the production of material libraries that formally contain infinite compositions. A complete ternary diagram can be obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on 100 mm silicon wafers. However, interest in such materials libraries is only meaningful if high-throughput characterization enables the information extraction from the as-deposited library in a reasonable time. While much commercial equipment allows for XY-resolved characterization at room temperature, very few sample holders have been made available to investigate structural, chemical, and functional properties at high temperatures in controlled atmospheres. In the present work, we present a furnace that enables the study of 100 mm wafers as a function of temperature. This furnace has a dome to control the atmosphere, typically varying from nitrogen gas to pure oxygen atmosphere with external control. We present the design of such a furnace and an example of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fluorescence (XRF) measurements performed at the DiffAbs beamline of the SOLEIL synchrotron. We apply this high-throughput approach to a combinatorial library up to 735 {\textdegree}C in nitrogen and calculate the thermal expansion coefficients (TEC) of the ternary system using custom-made MATLAB codes. The TEC analysis revealed the potential limitations of Vegard's law in predicting lattice variations for high-entropy materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Charging energy effects on a single-edge anyon braiding detector

We investigate the influence of capacitive coupling on the detection of anyon braiding in a single-edge interferometer realized in the fractional quantum Hall regime. In this setup, a quantum point contact bends a single edge into a loop, where tunneling occurs at the open end and is controlled by the QPC voltage. In contrast with previously studied two-edge geometries, the weak backscattering regime is dominated by the first-order perturbative term, allowing quantum transport quantities to factorize into a non-universal prefactor and a braiding-induced contribution that provides direct access to the universal statistical angle $\pi\lambda$. While previous analyses neglected edge-to-edge capacitance, we show that capacitive effects, which are known to play a crucial role in mesoscopic capacitors, modify both the current and the current cross-correlations. Using a two-point Green's function formalism augmented by Dyson's equation to include the charging energy, we quantify how the fluctuations of the cross-correlations depend simultaneously on $\lambda$ and on the capacitance of the loop. Our results indicate that a reliable extraction of the statistical angle requires a parallel measurement of the loop capacitance, which can be implemented via a charged gate coupled to the junction.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Probing anyon statistics on a single-edge loop in the fractional quantum Hall regime

We propose a setup to directly measure the anyonic statistical angle on a single edge of a fractional quantum Hall system, without requiring independent knowledge of non-universal parameters. We consider a Laughlin edge state bent into a closed loop geometry, where tunneling processes are controllably induced between the endpoints of the loop. To illustrate the underlying physical mechanism, we compute the time-dependent current generated by the injection of multiple anyons, and show that its behavior exhibits distinctive features governed by the anyonic statistical angle. The measured current reflects quantum interference effects due to the time-resolved braiding of anyons at the junction. To establish experimental relevance, we introduce a protocol where anyons are probabilistically injected upstream of the loop via a quantum point contact (QPC) source. Unlike in Fabry-Perot interferometers, where phase jumps occur spontaneously due to stochastic quasi-particle motion, here the phase jumps are deliberately induced by source injections. These events imprint measurable signatures in the cross-correlation noise, enabling a controlled statistical analysis of the braiding phase. We further show that, by varying the magnetic field while remaining within the same fractional quantum Hall plateau, the statistical angle can be extracted without relying on the knowledge of other non-universal system parameters. Our results provide a minimal and accessible platform for probing anyonic statistics using a single chiral edge.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Anyon braiding on the single edge of a fractional quantum Hall state

Anyons are quasiparticles with fractional statistics, bridging between fermions and bosons. We propose an experimental setup to measure the statistical angle of topological anyons emitted from a quantum point contact (QPC) source. The setup involves an droplet along a fractional quantum Hall liquid edge, formed by defining a droplet with two negatively biased gates. In the weak tunneling regime, we calculate the charge current, showing its time evolution depends solely on the anyons' statistical properties, with temperature and scaling dimension affecting only the constant prefactor. We compute the cross-correlation between the anyon current transmitted from the source and the current after the junction, providing a direct method to detect anyon braiding statistics.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Photo-assisted shot noise probes multiple charge carriers in quantum Hall edges

Fractional charges in the fractional quantum Hall effect were first observed via DC shot noise measurements of anyons tunneling at a quantum point contact (QPC). However, in scenarios with simultaneous tunneling of different types of charges at the QPC, the connection between DC shot noise and tunneling charge is less transparent. Photo-assisted shot noise (PASN), induced by periodic AC voltage, offers a promising alternative. Here, we investigate PASN in the hierarchical states of the fractional quantum Hall effect, where different types of charges are expected to tunnel concurrently at QPCs. In the particular case of the fractional quantum Hall state $\nu = 2/3$, our analysis demonstrates that PASN can be employed as a robust tool to detect different tunneling charges, even when the tunneling amplitude of one type is significantly smaller compared to the other. We show that the features predicted by our calculations are still visible for typical values of temperature and frequency achieved in state-of-the-art experiments. Our general formalism can be used to compute PASN for general Abelian quantum Hall systems with multiple edge modes and charge types.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Time-domain braiding of anyons

Contrary to fermions and bosons, anyons are quasiparticles that keep a robust memory of particle exchanges via a braiding phase factor. This provides them with unique dynamical properties so far unexplored. When an anyon excitation is emitted toward a quantum point contact (QPC) in a fractional quantum Hall (FQH) fluid, this memory translates into tunneling events that may occur long after the anyon excitation has exited the QPC. Here, we use triggered anyon pulses incident on a QPC in a $\nu= 1/3$ FQH fluid to investigate anyon tunneling in the time domain. We observe that braiding increases the tunneling timescale, which is set by the temperature and the anyon scaling dimension that characterizes the edge state dynamics. This contrasts with the electron behavior where braiding is absent and the tunneling timescale is set by the temporal width of the generated electron pulses. Our experiment introduces time-domain measurements for characterizing the braiding phase and scaling dimension of anyons.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Periodic source of energy-entangled electrons in helical states coupled to a BCS superconductor

We propose a source of purely electronic energy-entangled states implemented in a solid-state system with potential applications in quantum information protocols based on electron flying qubits. The proposed device relies on the standard tools of Electron Quantum Optics (EQO) and exploits entanglement of the Cooper pairs of a BCS superconductor. The latter is coupled via an adjustable quantum point contact to two opposite spin polarized electron wave-guides, which are driven by trains of Lorentzian pulses. This specific choice for the drive is crucial to inject purely electronic entangled-states devoid of spurious electron-hole pairs. In the Andreev regime, a perturbative calculation in the tunnel coupling confirms that entangled electrons states (EES) are generated at the output of the normal side. We introduce a quantity related to charge current cross-correlations which allows one to verify experimentally the entangled nature of the emitted state.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Current and shot noise in a normal metal-superconductor junction driven by spin-dependent periodic pulse sequence

Andreev reflection is a fundamental transport process occurring at the junction between a normal metal and a superconductor (a N-S junction), when an incident electron from the normal side can only be transmitted in the superconductor as a Cooper pair, with the reflection of a hole in the normal metal. As a consequence of the spin singlet nature of the BCS Cooper pairs, the current due to Andreev reflection at a N-S junction is always symmetric in spin. Using a Keldysh Nambu Floquet approach, combining analytical and numerical calculations, we study in details the AC transport at a N-S junction, when the two spin components in the normal metal are driven by different periodic drives. We show that, in the Andreev regime, i.e. when the superconducting gap is much larger than the frequency of the drives, the spin-resolved photo-assisted currents are always equal even if the two drives are different. In addition, we show that in this regime the excess noise depends only on the sum of the periodic drives, and we consider in particular the case of Lorentzian pulses (Levitons). We also show how these properties get modified when going beyond the Andreev regime. Finally we give a simple analytical proof of the special properties of the Andreev regime using an exact mapping to a particular N-N junction.

cond-mat.supr-con

Minimal alternating current injection into carbon nanotubes

We study theoretically the effect of electronic interactions in 1d systems on electron injection using periodic Lorentzian pulses, known as Levitons. We consider specifically a system composed of a metallic single-wall carbon nanotube, described with the Luttinger liquid formalism, a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip, and metallic leads. Using the out-of-equilibrium Keldysh Green function formalism, we compute the current and current noise in the system. We prove that the excess noise vanishes when each Leviton injects an integer number of electrons from the STM tip into the nanotube. This extends the concept of minimal injection with Levitons to strongly correlated, uni-dimensional non-chiral systems. We also study the time-dependent current profile, and show how it is the result of interferences between pulses non-trivially reflected at the nanotube-lead interface.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Spin Pumping into Carbon Nanotubes

We theoretically study spin pumping from a ferromagnetic insulator (FI) into a carbon nanotube (CNT). By employing the bosonization method, we formulate the Gilbert damping induced by the FI/CNT junction, which can be measured by ferromagnetic resonance. We show that the increase in the Gilbert damping has a temperature dependence characteristic of a Luttinger liquid and is highly sensitive to the Luttinger parameter of the spin sector for a clean interface. We also discuss the experimental relevance of our findings based on numerical estimates, using realistic parameters.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Correlated two-Leviton states in the fractional quantum Hall regime

We consider a two-dimensional electron system in the Laughlin sequence of the fractional quantum Hall regime to investigate the effect of strong correlations on the mutual interaction between two Levitons, single-electron excitations generated by trains of quantized Lorentzian pulses. We focus on two-Leviton states injected in a single period with a time separation $\Delta t$. In the presence of a quantum point contact operating in the weak-backscattering regime, we compute the backscattered charge by means of the Keldysh technique. In the limit of an infinite period and zero temperature, we show that the backscattered charge for a two-Leviton state is not equal to twice the backscattered charge for a single Leviton. We present an interpretation for this result in terms of the wave-packet formalism for Levitons, thus proposing that an effective interaction between the two Levitons is induced by the strongly-correlated background. Finally, we perform numerical calculations in the periodic case by using the Floquet formalism for photo-assisted transport. By varying the system parameters such as pulse width, filling factor and temperature we show that the value of the backscattered charge for two-Leviton states is strongly dependent on the pulse separation, thus opening scenarios where the effective interaction between Levitons can be controllably tuned.

cond-mat.mes-hall

An on-demand source of non-local energy-entangled quantum states using Levitons

We propose a device where Electronic Quantum Optics (EQO) is combined with a BCS superconductor -- a reservoir of Cooper pairs. With spin polarized wave guides, this version of the Cooper pair beam splitter is driven by an AC drive, and observables such as period-averaged noise are computed using a Keldysh-Nambu-Floquet formalism. When the (low frequency) voltage applied to the superconductor consists of a train of periodic Lorentzian pulses and the Andreev regime is specified (large gap limit), this allows to propose an on-demand source of non-local energy-entangled states (which we characterise with perturbation theory) operating in the AC regime. We study realistic experimental parameters for our device in order to examine its feasibility.

cond-mat.supr-con

Andreev reflection of fractional quantum Hall quasiparticles

Electron correlation in a quantum many-body state appears as peculiar scattering behaviour at its boundary, symbolic of which is Andreev reflection at a metal-superconductor interface. Despite being fundamental in nature, dictated by the charge conservation law, however, the process has had no analogues outside the realm of superconductivity so far. Here, we report the observation of an Andreev-like process originating from a topological quantum many-body effect instead of superconductivity. A narrow junction between fractional and integer quantum Hall states shows a two-terminal conductance exceeding that of the constituent fractional state. This remarkable behaviour, while theoretically predicted more than two decades ago but not detected to date, can be interpreted as Andreev reflection of fractionally charged quasiparticles. The observed fractional quantum Hall Andreev reflection provides a fundamental picture that captures microscopic charge dynamics at the boundaries of topological quantum many-body states.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Spectral properties of interacting helical channels driven by Lorentzian pulses

Precise shaping of coherent electron sources allows the controlled creation of wavepackets into a one dimensional (1D) quantum conductor. Periodic trains of Lorentzian pulses have been shown to induce minimal excitations without creating additional electron-hole pairs in a single non-interacting 1D electron channel. The presence of electron-electron (e-e) interactions dramatically affects the non-equilibrium dynamics of a 1D system. Here, we consider the intrinsic spectral properties of a helical liquid, with a pair of counterpropagating interacting channels, in the presence of time-dependent Lorentzian voltage pulses. We show that peculiar asymmetries in the behavior of the spectral function are induced by interactions, depending on the sign of the injected charges. Moreover, we discuss the robustness of the concept of minimal excitations in the presence of interactions, where the link with excess noise is no more straightforward. Finally, we propose a scanning tunneling microscope setup to spectroscopically access and probe the non-equilibrium behavior induced by the voltage drive and e-e interactions. This allows a diagnosis of fractional charges in a correlated quantum spin Hall liquid in the presence of time-dependent drives.

cond-mat.mes-hall