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U. Gennser

Publications and source records attributed to U. Gennser.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Experimental Evidence of Fractional Entropy in Critical Kondo Systems

Unconventional quantum states defying the ubiquitous Fermi-liquid paradigm can emerge in the presence of strong electronic correlations. Among these, non-Abelian anyons - such as Majorana zero modes and Fibonacci anyons - are of particular interest for topological quantum computing due to their non-integer quantum dimensions d>1, which allows for protected non-local encoding and processing of quantum information. However, despite considerable efforts, the unambiguous characterisation of such anyons via transport measurements has proved challenging. Instead, here we provide experimental evidence for the low-temperature fractional entropy Delta S associated with a single anyon, which directly implies its non-Abelian character through the relation Delta S = kB ln(d). This thermodynamic signature is measured in metal-semiconductor quantum circuits engineered to realize quantum-critical states from frustrated interactions. Using a micrometre-scale metallic island coupled to two or three electronic leads, we tune the system to two-channel and three-channel Kondo critical points. By measuring the island charge and exploiting a thermodynamic Maxwell relation, we estimate the entropy associated with the anyons that emerge in these critical states. Our observations reveal fractional values, exposing non-Abelian anyons. The corresponding scaling dimensions are consistent with theoretical predictions for a Majorana zero mode Delta S = kB ln(sqrt(2)) and a Fibonacci anyon Delta S = kB ln(1 +sqrt(5))/2 for two and three channels. These findings establish entropy measurements as a powerful tool for characterizing exotic quantum states.

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Heating Dynamics of Mesoscopic Electron Baths at High Magnetic Field

Quantum thermodynamics addresses the dynamics of heat flow in quantum devices driven out of equilibrium. Although mesoscopic circuits at low temperatures provide a flexible platform to explore this dynamics, experimental studies are wanting because thermal timescales in nanodevices are often too fast. Here we engineer and investigate with noise thermometry a mesoscopic thermal circuit where heat flows between electron, phonon and nuclear systems can occur on slower timescales. The central constituent of this device is a micrometer-scale metallic island electrically connected to large cold electron reservoirs through two to four ballistic quantum Hall channels, a component frequently used for exploring stationary thermal currents. We uncover a two-step thermalization process specific to the mesoscopic scale, involving a fast initial temperature step followed by a much slower rise extending over minutes. This observation is quantitatively accounted for by the balance between heat flows through electronic quantum channels, to cold phonons, and to the nuclear spins in the metallic island. The disclosed mesoscopic thermalization takes a step into the field of quantum thermo-\emph{dynamical} phenomena, highlighting their distinctive nature on a central constituent of quantum circuits. The implications for the thermal engineering of nanodevices include the thermal characterization of exotic states at high magnetic field.

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Kondo cloud conductance in cavity-coupled quantum dots with asymmetric barriers

The Kondo effect emerges when a localized spin is screened by conduction electrons, giving rise to a strongly-correlated many-body ground state. In this work, we investigate this phenomenon in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot, focusing on the spatial extension of the Kondo screening cloud in the electron reservoirs. To probe its properties, the dot is coupled to an electronic Fabry-P\'erot interferometer, enabling controlled modulation of the density of states at the Fermi level. The observation of Kondo temperature oscillations indicates a Kondo screening length comparable to the cavity size. Furthermore, we explore how the coupling asymmetry with the two reservoirs affects both the amplitude and the phase of the conductance oscillations, revealing a subtle interplay between coherent transport and Kondo effect.

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Gate tunable edge magnetoplasmon resonators

Quantum Hall systems are platforms of choice when it comes to study topological properties of condensed matter systems and anyonic exchange statistics. In this work we have developed a tunable radiofrequency edge magnetoplasmonic resonator meant to serve as a versatile platform for future interferometric devices. The resonance frequency of the system is controlled by both the magnetic field and a set of electrostatic gates. The gates allow us to change both the size of the resonant cavity and the electronic density of the two-dimensional electron gas. We show that we can continuously control the frequency response of our resonator, making it possible to develop an edge magnetoplasmon interferometer. As we reach smaller sizes of our resonator, finite size effects caused by the measurement probes manifest. We present a theoretical description of the system taking into account the spatial extension of the probing gates. In the future, such device will be a valuable tool to investigate the properties of non-abelian anyons in the fractional quantum Hall regime.

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Observation of the scaling dimension of fractional quantum Hall anyons

Unconventional quasiparticles emerging in the fractional quantum Hall regime present the challenge of observing their exotic properties unambiguously. Although the fractional charge of quasiparticles has been demonstrated since nearly three decades, the first convincing evidence of their anyonic quantum statistics has only recently been obtained and, so far, the so-called scaling dimension that determines the quasiparticles propagation dynamics remains elusive. In particular, while the non-linearity of the tunneling quasiparticle current should reveal their scaling dimension, the measurements fail to match theory, arguably because this observable is not robust to non-universal complications. Here we expose the scaling dimension from the thermal noise to shot noise crossover, and observe an agreement with expectations. Measurements are fitted to the predicted finite temperature expression involving both the quasiparticles scaling dimension and their charge, in contrast to previous charge investigations focusing on the high bias shot noise regime. A systematic analysis, repeated on multiple constrictions and experimental conditions, consistently matches the theoretical scaling dimensions for the fractional quasiparticles emerging at filling factors 1/3, 2/5 and 2/3. This establishes a central property of fractional quantum Hall anyons, and demonstrates a powerful and complementary window into exotic quasiparticles.

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Signature of anyonic statistics in the integer quantum Hall regime

Anyons are exotic low-dimensional quasiparticles whose unconventional quantum statistics extends the binary particle division into fermions and bosons. The fractional quantum Hall regime provides a natural host, with first convincing anyon signatures recently observed through interferometry and cross-correlations of colliding beams. However, the fractional regime is rife with experimental complications, such as an anomalous tunneling density of states, which impede the manipulation of anyons. Here we show experimentally that the canonical integer quantum Hall regime can provide a robust anyon platform. Exploiting the Coulomb interaction between two co-propagating quantum Hall channels, an electron injected into one channel splits into two fractional charges behaving as abelian anyons. Their unconventional statistics is revealed by negative cross-correlations between dilute quasiparticle beams. Similarly to fractional quantum Hall observations, we show that the negative signal stems from a time-domain braiding process, here involving the incident fractional quasiparticles and spontaneously generated electron-hole pairs. Beyond the dilute limit, a theoretical understanding is achieved via the edge magnetoplasmon description of interacting integer quantum Hall channels. Our findings establish that, counter-intuitively, the integer quantum Hall regime provides a platform of choice for exploring and manipulating quasiparticles with fractional quantum statistics.

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Observing the universal screening of a Kondo impurity

The Kondo effect, deriving from a local magnetic impurity mediating electron-electron interactions, constitutes a flourishing basis for understanding a large variety of intricate many-body problems. Its experimental implementation in tunable circuits has made possible important advances through well-controlled investigations. However, these have mostly concerned transport properties, whereas thermodynamic observations - notably the fundamental measurement of the spin of the Kondo impurity - remain elusive in test-bed circuits. Here, with a novel combination of a "charge" Kondo circuit with a charge sensor, we directly observe the state of the impurity and its progressive screening. We establish the universal renormalization flow from a single free spin to a screened singlet, the associated reduction in the magnetization, and the relationship between scaling Kondo temperature and microscopic parameters. In our device, a Kondo pseudospin is realized by two degenerate charge states of a metallic island, which we measure with a non-invasive, capacitively coupled charge sensor. Such pseudospin probe of an engineered Kondo system opens the way to the thermodynamic investigation of many exotic quantum states, including the clear observation of Majorana zero modes through their fractional entropy.

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Cross-Correlation Investigation of Anyon Statistics in the $ν=1/3$ and $2/5$ Fractional Quantum Hall States

Recent pioneering works have set the stage for exploring anyon braiding statistics from negative current cross-correlations along two intersecting quasiparticle beams. In such a dual-source - analyzer quantum point contact setup, also referred to as 'collider', the anyon exchange phase of fractional quantum Hall quasiparticles is predicted to be imprinted into the cross-correlations characterized by an effective Fano-factor $P$. In the case of symmetric incoming quasiparticle beams, conventional fermions result in a vanishing $P$. In marked contrast, we observe signatures of anyon statistics in the negative $P$ found both for the $e/3$ Laughlin quasiparticles at filling factor $ν=1/3$ ($P\approx-2$, corroborating previous findings), and for the $e/5$ quasiparticles in the hierarchical state $ν=2/5$ ($P\approx-1$). Nevertheless, we argue that the quantitative connection between numerical value of $P\neq0$ and specific fractional exchange phase is hampered by the influence of the analyzer conductance dependence on the voltages used to generate the quasiparticles. Finally, we address the important challenge how to distinguish at $ν=1/3$ between negative cross-correlations induced by a fractional braid phase, and those resulting from a different Andreev-like mechanism. Although with symmetric sources $P$ does not exhibit signatures of a crossover when the analyzer is progressively detuned to favor Andreev processes, we demonstrate that changing the balance between sources provides a mean to discriminate between the two mechanisms.

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Observation of edge magnetoplasmon squeezing in a quantum Hall conductor

Squeezing of the quadratures of the electromagnetic field has been extensively studied in optics and microwaves. However, previous works focused on the generation of squeezed states in a low impedance ($Z_0 \approx 50 Ω$) environment. We report here on the demonstration of the squeezing of bosonic edge magnetoplasmon modes in a quantum Hall conductor whose characteristic impedance is set by the quantum of resistance ($R_K \approx 25 k Ω$), offering the possibility of an enhanced coupling to low-dimensional quantum conductors. By applying a combination of dc and ac drives to a quantum point contact, we demonstrate squeezing and observe a noise reduction 18\% below the vacuum fluctuations. This level of squeezing can be improved by using more complex conductors, such as ac driven quantum dots or mesoscopic capacitors.

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Comparing fractional quantum Hall Laughlin and Jain topological orders with the anyon collider

Anyon collision experiments have recently demonstrated the ability to discriminate between fermionic and anyonic statistics. However, only one type of anyons associated with the simple Laughlin state at filling factor $ν=1/3$ has been probed so far. It is now important to establish anyon collisions as quantitative probes of fractional statistics for more complex topological orders, with the ability to distinguish between different species of anyons with different statistics. In this work, we use the anyon collider to compare the Laughlin $ν=1/3$ state, which is used as the reference state, with the more complex Jain state at $ν=2/5$, where low energy excitations are carried by two co-propagating edge channels. We demonstrate that anyons generated on the outer channel of the $ν=2/5$ state (with a fractional charge $e^*=e/3$) have a similar behavior compared to $ν=1/3$, showing the robustness of anyon collision signals for anyons of the same type. In contrast, anyons emitted on the inner channel of $ν=2/5$ (with a fractional charge $e^*=e/5$) exhibit a reduced degree of bunching compared to the $ν=1/3$ case, demonstrating the ability of the anyon collider to discriminate not only between anyons and fermions, but also between different species of anyons associated with different topological orders of the bulk. Our experimental results for the inner channel of $ν=2/5$ also point towards an influence of interchannel interactions in anyon collision experiments when several co-propagating edge channels are present. A quantitative understanding of these effects will be important for extensions of anyon collisions to non-abelian topological orders, where several charged and neutral modes propagate at the edge.

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Quasiparticle Andreev scattering in the $\nu=1/3$ fractional quantum Hall regime

The scattering of exotic quasiparticles may follow different rules than electrons. In the fractional quantum Hall regime, a quantum point contact (QPC) provides a source of quasiparticles with field effect selectable charges and statistics, which can be scattered on an 'analyzer' QPC to investigate these rules. Remarkably, for incident quasiparticles dissimilar to those naturally transmitted across the analyzer, electrical conduction conserves neither the nature nor the number of the quasiparticles. In contrast with standard elastic scattering, theory predicts the emergence of a mechanism akin to the Andreev reflection at a normal-superconductor interface. Here, we observe the predicted Andreev-like reflection of an $e/3$ quasiparticle into a $-2e/3$ hole accompanied by the transmission of an $e$ quasielectron. Combining shot noise and cross-correlation measurements, we independently determine the charge of the different particles and ascertain the coincidence of quasielectron and fractional hole. The present work advances our understanding on the unconventional behavior of fractional quasiparticles, with implications toward the generation of novel quasi-particles/holes and non-local entanglements.

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Coulomb interactions and effective quantum inertia of charge carriers in a macroscopic conductor

We study the low frequency admittance of a quantum Hall bar of size much larger than the electronic coherence length. We find that this macroscopic conductor behaves as an ideal quantum conductor with vanishing longitudinal resistance and purely inductive behavior up to f<1MHz. Using several measurement configurations, we study the dependence of this inductance on the length of the edge channel and on the integer quantum Hall filling fraction. The experimental data are well described by a scattering model for edge magnetoplasmons taking into account effective long range Coulomb interactions within the sample. This demonstrates that the inductance's dependence on the filling fraction arises from the effective quantum inertia of charge carriers induced by Coulomb interactions within an ungated macroscopic quantum Hall bar.

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Dynamical Coulomb blockade under a temperature bias

We observe and comprehend the dynamical Coulomb blockade suppression of the electrical conductance across an electronic quantum channel submitted to a temperature difference. A broadly tunable, spin-polarized Ga(Al)As quantum channel is connected on-chip, through a micron-scale metallic node, to a linear $RC$ circuit. The latter is made up of the node's geometrical capacitance $C$ in parallel with an adjustable resistance $R\in \{1/2,1/3,1/4\}\times h/e^2$ formed by 2--4 quantum Hall channels. The system is characterized by three temperatures: a temperature of the electrons in the large electrodes ($T$) and in the node ($T_\mathrm{node}$), and a temperature of the electromagnetic modes of the $RC$ circuit ($T_\mathrm{env}$). The temperature in the node is selectively increased by local Joule dissipation, and characterized from current fluctuations. For a quantum channel in the tunnel regime, a close match is found between conductance measurements and tunnel dynamical Coulomb blockade theory. In the opposite near ballistic regime, we develop a theory that accounts for different electronic and electromagnetic bath temperatures, again in very good agreement with experimental data. Beyond these regimes, for an arbitrary quantum channel set in the far out-of-equilibrium situation where the temperature in the node significantly exceeds the one in the large electrodes, the equilibrium (uniform temperature) prediction for the conductance is recovered, albeit at a rescaled temperature $αT_\mathrm{node}$.

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Fractional statistics in anyon collisions

Two-dimensional systems can host exotic particles called anyons whose quantum statistics are neither bosonic nor fermionic. For example, the elementary excitations of the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling factor $ν=1/m$ (where m is an odd integer) have been predicted to obey abelian fractional statistics, with a phase $φ$ associated with the exchange of two particles equal to $π/m$. However, despite numerous experimental attempts, clear signatures of fractional statistics remain elusive. Here we experimentally demonstrate abelian fractional statistics at filling factor $ν=1/3$ by measuring the current correlations resulting from the collision between anyons at a beam-splitter. By analyzing their dependence on the anyon current impinging on the splitter and comparing with recent theoretical models, we extract $φ=π/3$, in agreement with predictions.

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Relaxation and revival of quasiparticles injected in an interacting quantum Hall liquid

The one-dimensional, chiral edge channels of the quantum Hall effect are a promising platform in which to implement electron quantum optics experiments; however, Coulomb interactions between edge channels are a major source of decoherence and energy relaxation. It is therefore of large interest to understand the range and limitations of the simple quantum electron optics picture. Here we confirm experimentally for the first time the predicted relaxation and revival of electrons injected at finite energy into an edge channel. The observed decay of the injected electrons is reproduced theoretically within a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid framework, including an important dissipation towards external degrees of freedom. This gives us a quantitative empirical understanding of the strength of the interaction and the dissipation.

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Quantum tomography of electrical currents

In quantum nanoelectronics, time-dependent electrical currents are built from few elementary excitations emitted with well-defined wavefunctions. However, despite the realization of sources generating quantized numbers of excitations, and despite the development of the theoretical framework of time-dependent quantum electronics, extracting electron and hole wavefunctions from electrical currents has so far remained out of reach, both at the theoretical and experimental levels. In this work, we demonstrate a quantum tomography protocol which extracts the generated electron and hole wavefunctions and their emission probabilities from any electrical current. It combines two-particle interferometry with signal processing. Using our technique, we extract the wavefunctions generated by trains of Lorentzian pulses carrying one or two electrons. By demonstrating the synthesis and complete characterization of electronic wavefunctions in conductors, this work offers perspectives for quantum information processing with electrical currents and for investigating basic quantum physics in many-body systems.

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Electronic heat flow and thermal shot noise in quantum circuits

When assembling individual quantum components into a mesoscopic circuit, the interplay between Coulomb interaction and charge granularity breaks down the classical laws of electrical impedance composition. Here we explore experimentally the thermal consequences, and observe an additional quantum mechanism of electronic heat transport. The investigated, broadly tunable test-bed circuit is composed of a micron-scale metallic node connected to one electronic channel and a resistance. Heating up the node with Joule dissipation, we separately determine, from complementary noise measurements, both its temperature and the thermal shot noise induced by the temperature difference across the channel (`delta-$T$ noise'). The thermal shot noise predictions are thereby directly validated, and the electronic heat flow is revealed. The latter exhibits a contribution from the channel involving the electrons' partitioning together with the Coulomb interaction. Expanding heat current predictions to include the thermal shot noise, we find a quantitative agreement with experiments.

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Microwave photons emitted by fractionally charged quasiparticles

Strongly correlated low-dimensional systems can host exotic elementary excitations carrying a fractional charge $q$ and potentially obeying anyonic statistics. In the fractional quantum Hall effect, their fractional charge has been successfully determined owing to low frequency shot noise measurements. However, a universal method for sensing them unambiguously and unraveling their intricate dynamics was still lacking. Here, we demonstrate that this can be achieved by measuring the microwave photons emitted by such excitations when they are transferred through a potential barrier biased with a dc voltage $V_{\text{dc}}$. We observe that only photons at frequencies $f$ below $qV_{\text{dc}}/h$ are emitted. This threshold provides a direct and unambiguous determination of the charge $q$, and a signature of exclusion statistics. Derived initially within the Luttinger model, this feature is also predicted by universal non-equilibrium fluctuation relations which agree fully with our measurements. Our work paves the way for further exploration of anyonic statistics using microwave measurements.

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