arXiv subjects

Vladimir Umansky

Publications and source records attributed to Vladimir Umansky.

70 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Robust Electron Pairing in the Integer Quantum Hall Effect Regime

Electron pairing is a rare phenomenon appearing only in a few unique physical systems; e.g., superconductors and Kondo-correlated quantum dots. Here, we report on an unexpected, but robust, electron "pairing" in the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) regime. The pairing takes place within an interfering edge channel circulating in an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer at a wide range of bulk filling factors, $2<ν _B<5$. The main observations are: (a) High visibility Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations with magnetic flux periodicity $Δϕ=φ_0/2=h/2e$ (instead of the ubiquitous $h/e$), with $e$ the electron charge and $h$ the Planck constant; (b) An interfering quasiparticle charge $e ^* {\sim} 2e$ - revealed by quantum shot noise measurements; and (c) Full dephasing of the $h/2e$ periodicity by induced dephasing of the adjacent edge channel (while keeping the interfering edge channel intact) : a clear realization of inter-channel entanglement. While this pairing phenomenon clearly results from inter-channel interaction, the exact mechanism that leads to e-e attraction within a single edge channel is not clear.

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arXiv2014

Suppressing qubit dephasing using real-time Hamiltonian estimation

Unwanted interaction between a quantum system and its fluctuating environment leads to decoherence and is the primary obstacle to establishing a scalable quantum information processing architecture. Strategies such as environmental and materials engineering, quantum error correction and dynamical decoupling can mitigate decoherence, but generally increase experimental complexity. Here we improve coherence in a qubit using real-time Hamiltonian parameter estimation. Using a rapidly converging Bayesian approach, we precisely measure the splitting in a singlet-triplet spin qubit faster than the surrounding nuclear bath fluctuates. We continuously adjust qubit control parameters based on this information, thereby improving the inhomogenously broadened coherence time ($T_{2}^{*}$) from tens of nanoseconds to above 2 $μ$s and demonstrating the effectiveness of Hamiltonian estimation in reducing the effects of correlated noise in quantum systems. Because the technique demonstrated here is compatible with arbitrary qubit operations, it is a natural complement to quantum error correction and can be used to improve the performance of a wide variety of qubits in both metrological and quantum-information-processing applications.

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arXiv2014

Exciton Liquid in Coupled Quantum Wells

Excitons in semiconductors may form correlated phases at low temperatures. We report the observation of an exciton liquid in GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells. Above a critical density and below a critical temperature the photogenerated electrons and holes separate into two phases, an electron-hole plasma and an exciton liquid, with a clear sharp boundary between them. The two phases are characterized by distinct photoluminescence spectra and by different electrical conductance. The liquid phase is formed by the repulsive interaction between the dipolar excitons, and exhibits a short range order, which is manifested in the photoluminescence lineshape.

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arXiv2013

Proliferation of neutral modes in fractional quantum Hall states

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is a canonical example of a topological phase in a correlated 2D electron gas under strong magnetic field. While electric currents propagate as chiral downstream edge modes, chargeless upstream chiral neutral edge modes were recently observed only in hole-conjugate states (states filling ν, n+1/2<ν<n+1, with n=0,1,2,...), and in the even denominator state ν=5/2. It is believed that spontaneous 'density reconstruction' near the edges of the 2D gas, leads to multiple counter propagating edge channels, being separated from each other by incompressible strips. Unavoidable disorder induces inter-channel tunneling; accompanied by Coulomb interaction it renormalizes the multiple edge channels to a downstream charge mode and upstream neutral edge mode(s), while maintaining the parity requirements (e.g., the heat conductance along the edge) dictated by the bulk. Here, we report of highly sensitive shot noise measurements that revealed unexpected presence of neutral modes in a variety of non-hole-conjugate fractional states. As already reported previously, we did not observe neutral modes in any of the integer states. In addition to the upstream neutral edge modes, we were surprised to find also neutral energy modes that propagate through the incompressible bulk. While along the edge, density reconstruction may account for the edge modes, we are not aware of a model that can account for the bulk modes. The proliferation of neutral modes, in every tested fractional state, changes drastically the accepted picture of FQHE states: an insulating bulk and 1D chiral edge channels. The apparent ubiquitous presence of these energy modes may account for decoherence of fractional quasiparticles - preventing observation of coherent interference in the fractional regime.

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arXiv2013

Fractional charges in emergent neutral modes at the integer quantum Hall effect

Charge fractionalization is a possible emergent excitation in a low-dimensional system of interacting electrons. A known example is that of fractional charges in the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) regime, which is a consequence of strong Coulomb interaction among the electrons whose kinetic energy is quenched by the strong magnetic field. Alternatively, the integer QHE (IQHE), with electrons behaving largely as independent particles in Landau levels (LLs), lacks such fractionalization. However, for integer LLs filling v=2, 3,... electrons propagate in copropagating adjacent chiral edge channels, and thus interact and modify the non-interacting LLs. For example, at v=2, an electron injected selectively into a single non-interacting (bare) edge channel is expected to decompose into a 'fast' mode and a 'slow' mode in the region of interaction; each mode carry fractional charges shared between the two bare channels. Here, we report our sensitive shot noise measurement that affirms the presence of such fractionalization in v=2. Injecting partitioned current into a 'hot' edge channel led to low frequency shot noise in the adjacent currentless 'cold' edge channel after it had been partitioned. Controlling the partitioning of the hot and cold channels allowed a determination of the fractional charges in both channels as well as the channels' velocity difference. This approach can be easily extended to study interaction in two-dimensional systems with a topology dictating edge channels transport.

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arXiv2012

Extracting net current from an upstream neutral mode in the fractional quantum Hall regime

Upstream neutral modes, counter propagating to charge modes and carrying energy without net charge, had been predicted to exist in some of the fractional quantum Hall states and were recently observed via noise measurements. Understanding such modes will assist in identifying the wavefunction of these states, as well as shedding light on the role of Coulomb interactions within edge modes. In this work, performed mainly in the nu=2/3 state, we placed a quantum dot a few micrometers upstream of an ohmic contact, which served as a neutral modes source. We showed the neutral modes heat the input of the dot, causing a net thermo-electric current to flow through it. Heating of the electrons led to a decay of the neutral mode, manifested in the vanishing of the thermo-electric current at T>110mK. This setup provides a straightforward method to investigate upstream neutral modes without turning to the more cumbersome noise measurements.

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arXiv2012

Demonstration of Entanglement of Electrostatically Coupled Singlet-Triplet Qubits

Quantum computers have the potential to solve certain interesting problems significantly faster than classical computers. To exploit the power of a quantum computation it is necessary to perform inter-qubit operations and generate entangled states. Spin qubits are a promising candidate for implementing a quantum processor due to their potential for scalability and miniaturization. However, their weak interactions with the environment, which leads to their long coherence times, makes inter-qubit operations challenging. We perform a controlled two-qubit operation between singlet-triplet qubits using a dynamically decoupled sequence that maintains the two-qubit coupling while decoupling each qubit from its fluctuating environment. Using state tomography we measure the full density matrix of the system and determine the concurrence and the fidelity of the generated state, providing proof of entanglement.

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arXiv2010

Enhancing the Coherence of a Spin Qubit by Operating it as a Feedback Loop That Controls its Nuclear Spin Bath

In many realizations of electron spin qubits the dominant source of decoherence is the fluctuating nuclear spin bath of the host material. The slowness of this bath lends itself to a promising mitigation strategy where the nuclear spin bath is prepared in a narrowed state with suppressed fluctuations. Here, this approach is realized for a two-electron spin qubit in a GaAs double quantum dot and a nearly ten-fold increase in the inhomogeneous dephasing time $T_2^*$ is demonstrated. Between subsequent measurements, the bath is prepared by using the qubit as a feedback loop that first measures its nuclear environment by coherent precession, and then polarizes it depending on the final state. This procedure results in a stable fixed point at a nonzero polarization gradient between the two dots, which enables fast universal qubit control.

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arXiv2010

Universal quantum control of two-electron spin quantum bits using dynamic nuclear polarization

One fundamental requirement for quantum computation is to perform universal manipulations of quantum bits at rates much faster than the qubit's rate of decoherence. Recently, fast gate operations have been demonstrated in logical spin qubits composed of two electron spins where the rapid exchange of the two electrons permits electrically controllable rotations around one axis of the qubit. However, universal control of the qubit requires arbitrary rotations around at least two axes. Here we show that by subjecting each electron spin to a magnetic field of different magnitude we achieve full quantum control of the two-electron logical spin qubit with nanosecond operation times. Using a single device, a magnetic field gradient of several hundred milliTesla is generated and sustained using dynamic nuclear polarization of the underlying Ga and As nuclei. Universal control of the two-electron qubit is then demonstrated using quantum state tomography. The presented technique provides the basis for single and potentially multiple qubit operations with gate times that approach the threshold required for quantum error correction.

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arXiv2010

Observation of neutral modes in the fractional quantum Hall regime

In the quantum Hall effect regime, taking place in a two-dimensional-electron gas under strong magnetic field, currents flow along the edges of the sample. For some particle-hole conjugate states of the fractional regime, e.g., with filling between 1/2 and 1 of the lowest Landau level; early predictions suggested the presence of counter-propagating edge currents in addition to the expected ones. When this did not agree with the measured conductance, it was suggested that disorder and interactions will lead to counterpropagating modes that carry only energy - the so called neutral modes. In addition, a neutral upstream mode (Majorana mode) was also expected for selected wavefunctions proposed for the even denominator filling 5/2. Here we report on the direct observation of counter-propagating neutral modes in fillings 2/3, 3/5 and 5/2. This was done by injecting such modes and allowing them to impinge on a narrow constriction, which partly reflected them, with two main observed effects: (a) A resultant shot noise proportional to the applied voltage on the injecting contact; (b) With simultaneously injecting also a charge mode, the presence of the neutral mode was found to significantly affect the Fano factor and the temperature of the backscattered charge mode. In particular, such observation for filling 5/2, may single out the non-abelian wavefunctions for the state.

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arXiv2010

Long coherence of electron spins coupled to a nuclear spin bath

Qubits, the quantum mechanical bits required for quantum computing, must retain their fragile quantum states over long periods of time. In many types of electron spin qubits, the primary source of decoherence is the interaction between the electron spins and nuclear spins of the host lattice. For electrons in gate defined GaAs quantum dots, previous spin echo measurements have revealed coherence times of about 1 $μ$s at low magnetic fields below 100 mT. Here, we show that coherence in such devices can actually survive to much longer times, and provide a detailed understanding of the measured nuclear spin induced decoherence. At fields above a few hundred millitesla, the coherence time measured using a single-pulse spin echo extends to 30 $μ$s. At lower magnetic fields, the echo first collapses, but then revives at later times given by the period of the relative Larmor precession of different nuclear species. This behavior was recently predicted, and as we show can be quantitatively accounted for by a semi-classical model for the electron spin dynamics in the presence of a nuclear spin bath. Using a multiple-pulse Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill echo sequence, the decoherence time can be extended to more than 200 $μ$s, which represents an improvement by two orders of magnitude compared to previous measurements. This demonstration of effective methods to mitigate nuclear spin induced decoherence puts the quantum error correction threshold within reach.

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arXiv2009

Shot Noise and Fractional Charge at the 2/3 Composite Fractional Edge Channel

The exact structure of edge modes in `hole conjugate' fractional quantum Hall states remains an unsolved issue despite significant experimental and theoretical efforts devoted to their understanding. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in such studies led by the search for neutral modes, which in some cases may lead to exotic statistical properties of the excitations. In this letter we report on detailed measurements of shot noise, produced by partitioning of the more familiar 2/3 state. We find a fractional charge of (2/3)e at the lowest temperature, decreasing to e/3 at an elevated temperature. Surprisingly, strong shot noise had been measured on a clear 1/3 plateau upon partitioning the 2/3 state. This behavior suggests an uncommon picture of the composite edge channels quite different from the accepted one.

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arXiv2009

The Role of Interactions in an Electronic Fabry-Perot Interferometer Operating in the Quantum Hall Effect Regime

Interference of edge channels is expected to be a prominent tool for studying statistics of charged quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect (QHE) [A. Stern (2008), Ann. Phys. 1:204; C. Chamon et al. (1997), Phys. Rev. B, 55:2331]. We present here a detailed study of an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) operating in the QHE regime [C. Chamon et al. (1997), Phys. Rev. B, 55:2331], with the phase of the interfering quasiparticles controlled by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect. Our main finding is that Coulomb interactions among the electrons dominate the interference, even in a relatively large area FPI, leading to a strong dependence of the area enclosed by the interference loop on the magnetic field. In particular, for a composite edge structure, with a few independent edge channels propagating along the edge, interference of the outmost edge channel (belonging to the lowest Landau level) was insensitive to magnetic field; suggesting a constant enclosed flux. However, when any of the inner edge channels interfered, the enclosed flux decreased when the magnetic field increased. By intentionally varying the enclosed area with a biased metallic gate and observing the periodicity of the interference pattern, charges e (for integer filling factors) and e/3 (for a fractional filling factor) were found to be expelled from the FPI. Moreover, these observations provided also a novel way of detecting the charge of the interfering quasiparticles.

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arXiv2008

Quantum mechanical complementarity probed in a closed-loop Aharonov-Bohm interferometer

According to Bohr's complementarity principle, a particle possesses wave-like properties only when the different paths the particle may take are indistinguishable. In a canonical example of a two-path interferometer with a which-path detector, observation of interference and obtaining which-path information are mutually exclusive. Such duality has been demonstrated in optics with a pair of correlated photons and in solid-state devices with phase-coherent electrons. In the latter case, which-path information was provided by a charge detector embedded near one path of a two-path electron interferometer. Note that suppression of interference can always be understood either as obtaining path information or as unavoidable back action by the detector. The present study reports on dephasing of an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring interferometer via a coupled charge detector adjacent to the ring. In contrast to the two-path interferometer, charge detection in the ring does not always provide path information. Indeed, we found that the interference was suppressed only when path information could be acquired, even if only in principle. This demonstrates that dephasing does not always take place by coupling the `environment' to the interfering particle: path information of the particle must be available too. Moreover, this is valid regardless of the strength of environment-interferometer coupling, which refutes the general notion of the effect of strong interaction with the environment. In other words, it verifies that an acquisition of which-path information is more fundamental than the back-action in understanding quantum mechanical complementarity.

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arXiv2008

Beating of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in a closed-loop interferometer

One of the points at issue with closed-loop-type interferometers is beating in the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations. Recent observations suggest the possibility that the beating results from the Berry-phase pickup by the conducting electrons in materials with the strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI). In this study, we also observed beats in the AB oscillations in a gate-defined closed-loop interferometer fabricated on a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron-gas heterostructure. Since this heterostructure has very small SOI, the picture of the Berry-phase pickup is ruled out. The observation of beats in this study, with the controllability of forming a single transverse subband mode in both arms of our gate-defined interferometer, also rules out the often-claimed multiple transverse subband effect. It is observed that nodes of the beats with an h/2e period exhibit a parabolic distribution for varying the side gate. These results are shown to be well interpreted, without resorting to the SOI effect, by the existence of two-dimensional multiple longitudinal modes in a single transverse subband. The Fourier spectrum of measured conductance, despite showing multiple h/e peaks with the magnetic-field dependence that are very similar to that from strong-SOI materials, can also be interpreted as the two-dimensional multiple-longitudinal-modes effect.

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arXiv2006

Controlled Dephasing of a Quantum Dot: From Coherent to Sequential Tunneling

Resonant tunneling through identical potential barriers is a textbook problem in quantum mechanics. Its solution yields total transparency (100% tunneling) at discrete energies. This dramatic phenomenon results from coherent interference among many trajectories, and it is the basis of transport through periodic structures. Resonant tunneling of electrons is commonly seen in semiconducting 'quantum dots'. Here we demonstrate that detecting (distinguishing) electron trajectories in a quantum dot (QD) renders the QD nearly insulating. We couple trajectories in the QD to a 'detector' by employing edge channels in the integer quantum Hall regime. That is, we couple electrons tunneling through an inner channel to electrons in the neighboring outer, 'detector' channel. A small bias applied to the detector channel suffices to dephase (quench) the resonant tunneling completely. We derive a formula for dephasing that agrees well with our data and implies that just a few electrons passing through the detector channel suffice to dephase the QD completely. This basic experiment shows how path detection in a QD induces a transition from delocalization (due to coherent tunneling) to localization (sequential tunneling).

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