A charge-current switch manipulated by the macroscopic quantum coherence of a single-molecule magnet

We report a theoretical analysis of electron transport through a quantum dot with an embedded biaxial single-molecule magnet, which is coupled to ferromagnetic electrodes of parallel and antiparallel magnet-configurations. For the antiparallel configuration of complete polarization it is shown that the originally prohibited electron transport can be opened up by the macroscopic quantum coherence of the molecular magnet, which provides a spin-flipping mechanism. The charge-current and differential conductance are controllable by variation of the magnitude and orientation of an external magnetic field, which in turn manipulates the macroscopic quantum coherence of the molecular magnet. Moreover, the transport can be switched off at particular values of the magnetic field, where the tunnel splitting is quenched by the quantum phase interference of tunnel paths.The transport current and differential conductance as functions of the electrode-polarization and magnetic field are extensively studied, which may be useful in practical applications. A new transport channel is found in the completely polarized parallel-configuration induced by the tunnel splitting of molecular magnet and resonance-peak splits of the conductance are observed in non-completely polarized configurations. 75.50.Xx Molecular magnets     

Direct observation of quantum coherence in single-molecule magnets

Direct evidence of quantum coherence in a single-molecule magnet in a frozen solution is reported with coherence times as long as T{2}=630+/-30 ns. We can strongly increase the coherence time by modifying the matrix in which the single-molecule magnets are embedded. The electron spins are coupled to the proton nuclear spins of both the molecule itself and, interestingly, also to those of the solvent. The clear observation of Rabi oscillations indicates that we can manipulate the spin coherently, an essential prerequisite for performing quantum computations.     

Dynamics of a quantum two-level system under the action of phase-diffusion field

We study a behavior of quantum two-level system, interacting with noisy phase-diffusion field. The dynamics is shown to split into two regimes, determined by the coherence time of the phase-diffusion field. For both regimes we present a model of quantum system behavior and discuss possible applications of the obtained effect for spectroscopy. In particular, the obtained analytical formula for the macroscopic polarization demonstrates that the phase-diffusion field does not affect the absorption line shape, which opens up an intriguing possibility of noisy spectroscopy, based on broadband sources with Lorentzian line shape.     

Macroscopic Quantum Coherence in Antiferromagnetic Molecular Magnets

The macroscopic quantum coherence in a biaxial antiferromagnetic molecular magnet in the presence of magnetic field acting parallel to its hard anisotropy axis is studied within the two-sublattice model.On the basis of instanton technique in the spin-coherent-state path-integral representation,both the rigorous Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin exponent and pre-exponential factor for the ground-state tunnel splitting are obtained.We find that the quantum fluctuations around the classical paths can not only induce a new quantum phase previously reported by Chiolero and Loss (Phys.Rev.Lett.80(1998)169),but also have great influence on the intensity of the ground-state tunnel splitting.Those features clearly have no analogue in the ferromagnetic molecular magnets.We suggest that they may be the universal behaviors in all antiferromagnetic molecular magnets.The analytical results are complemented by exact diagonalization calculation.     

Quantification of macroscopic quantum superpositions within phase space

Based on phase-space structures of quantum states, we propose a novel measure to quantify macroscopic quantum superpositions. Our measure simultaneously quantifies two different kinds of essential information for a given quantum state in a harmonious manner: the degree of quantum coherence and the effective size of the physical system that involves the superposition. It enjoys remarkably good analytical and algebraic properties. It turns out to be the most general and inclusive measure ever proposed that it can be applied to any types of multipartite states and mixed states represented in phase space.     

New polaron effect in magnetooptic phenomena in a quantum well

It is predicted that resonance coupling between two discrete electron energy levels corresponding to different size-quantization quantum numbers and different Landau quantum numbers can occur in a quantum well in a quantizing magnetic field. The resonance coupling is due to the interaction of an electron with LO phonons and results in the formation of polaron states of a new type. It is shown that for a certain value of the magnetic field, which depends on the splitting of the electron size-quantization levels, the absorption peak and the two-phonon resonance Raman scattering peak split into two components, the separation between which is determined by the electron-phonon coupling constant. The resonance coupling between size-quantization levels with the same Landau quantum numbers is also studied. The splitting of the peaks in this case is virtually independent of the magnetic field and can be observed in much weaker fields. The experimental observation of the effect will make it possible to determine the relative position of the electronic levels and the electron-phonon coupling constant. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 7, 511–515 (10 April 1997)     

Quantum dynamics of an impurity-doped Bose-Einstein condensate system

We study the quantum dynamics of an impurity-doped Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) system. We show how to generate the macroscopic quantum superposition states (MQSSs) of the BEC by the use of projective measurements on impurity atoms. It is found that the nonclassicality of MQSSs can be manipulated by changing the number of the impurities and their interaction with the BEC. It is shown that the BEC matter-wave field exhibits a collapse and revival phenomenon which reveals the quantum nature of the BEC matter-wave field. We investigate the micro-macro entanglement between the impurities and the BEC, and find enhancement of the micro-macro entanglement induced by the initial quantum coherence of the impurity atoms.     

基态精细结构能级之间的量子相干引起的非线性效应

讨论了级联四能级系统中基态精细结构能级之间的量子相干引起的非线性效应。耦合场同时激励激发态的下精细结构能级和基态的两个精细结构能级之间的光学跃迁使系统中出现新吸收峰。研究结果表明,基态精细结构能级之间的粒子弛豫速率越小,量子相干效应越显著,但是增大耦合场的Rabi频率会削弱这种量子相干效应。     

Theory of the electron and nuclear spin coherence times of shallow donor spin qubits in isotopically and chemically purified zinc oxide

In this article, I present a theoretical study of the electron and nuclear spin coherence times of shallow donor spin qubits in zinc oxide (ZnO) at low temperature. The influence of different spin-phonon processes as well as different spin-spin processes on the spin coherence time of shallow donors in ZnO is considered, both in the case of an electron spin qubit and in the case of a nuclear spin qubit encoded on a shallow donor. It is estimated that the electron spin coherence time of an isolated indium shallow donor in natural quasi-intrinsic ZnO is on the order of hundreds of microseconds, limited by the nuclear spectral diffusion process. The electron spin coherence time of an isolated indium shallow donor can be extended to few milliseconds in isotopically and chemically purified quasi-intrinsic ZnO. In this optimal case, the electron spin coherence time of an isolated indium shallow donor is only limited by a spin-lattice decoherence process. It is also estimated that the nuclear spin coherence time of an isolated indium shallow donor in natural quasi-intrinsic ZnO is on the order of hundreds of milliseconds, limited by the nuclear spectral diffusion process. The nuclear spin coherence time of an isolated indium shallow donor can be extended to few seconds in isotopically and chemically purified quasi-intrinsic ZnO. In this optimal case, the nuclear spin coherence time of an isolated indium shallow donor is only limited by the cross relaxation decoherence process. This study thus shows the great potential of electron and nuclear spin qubits encoded on shallow donors in isotopically and chemically purified quasi-intrinsic ZnO for the implementation of quantum processor and/or quantum memories.     

基态精细结构能级之间的量子相干引起的非线性效应

讨论了级联四能级系统中基态精细结构能级之间的量子相干引起的非线性效应。耦合场同时激励激发态的下精细结构能级和基态的两个精细结构能级之间的光学跃迁使系统中出现新吸收峰。研究结果表明,基态精细结构能级之间的粒子弛豫速率越小,量子相干效应越显著,但是增大耦合场的Rabi频率会削弱这种量子相干效应。     

外磁场中单畴反铁磁颗粒的宏观量子效应

用瞬子方法研究了外加磁场对单畴双轴反铁磁颗粒宏观量子效应的影响. 当外磁场沿易磁化方向时,简并基态中的一个能量抬高,变为亚稳态,其隧穿衰变率随外磁场增大;当外磁场沿中间磁化方向时,能级的隧穿劈裂随外磁场的变化而振荡.从而提出一种观察单畴反铁磁颗粒中宏观量子相干和隧穿现象的实验方法.     

Quantum degeneracy of microcavity polaritons

We investigate experimentally one of the main features of a quantum fluid constituted by exciton polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity, that is, quantum degeneracy of a macroscopic fraction of the particles. We show that resonant pumping allows us to create a macroscopic population of polaritons in one quantum state. Furthermore, we demonstrate that parametric polariton scattering results in the transfer of a macroscopic population of polariton from one single quantum state into another one. Finally, we briefly outline a simple method which provides direct evidence of the first-order spatial coherence of the transferred population.     

Subradiant split Cooper pairs

We suggest a way to characterize the coherence of the split Cooper pairs emitted by a double-quantum-dot based Cooper pair splitter (CPS), by studying the radiative response of such a CPS inside a microwave cavity. The coherence of the split pairs manifests in a strongly nonmonotonic variation of the emitted radiation as a function of the parameters controlling the coupling of the CPS to the cavity. The idea to probe the coherence of the electronic states using the tools of cavity quantum electrodynamics could be generalized to many other nanoscale circuits.     

Electronic transport properties of the Ising quantum Hall ferromagnet in a Si quantum well

Magnetotransport properties are investigated for a high mobility Si two-dimensional electron system in the vicinity of a Landau level crossing point. At low temperatures, the resistance peak having a strong anisotropy shows large hysteresis which is attributed to Ising quantum Hall ferromagnetism. The peak is split into two peaks in the paramagnetic regime. A mean field calculation for the peak positions indicates that electron scattering is strong when the pseudospin is partially polarized. We also study the current-voltage characteristics which exhibit a wide voltage plateau.     

Full counting statistics as a probe of quantum coherence in a side-coupled double quantum dot system

We study theoretically the full counting statistics of electron transport through side-coupled double quantum dot (QD) based on an efficient particle-number-resolved master equation. It is demonstrated that the high-order cumulants of transport current are more sensitive to the quantum coherence than the average current, which can be used to probe the quantum coherence of the considered double QD system. Especially, quantum coherence plays a crucial role in determining whether the super-Poissonian noise occurs in the weak inter-dot hopping coupling regime depending on the corresponding QD-lead coupling, and the corresponding values of super-Poissonian noise can be relatively enhanced when considering the spins of conduction electrons. Moreover, this super-Poissonian noise bias range depends on the singly-occupied eigenstates of the system, which thus suggests a tunable super-Poissonian noise device. The occurrence-mechanism of super-Poissonian noise can be understood in terms of the interplay of quantum coherence and effective competition between fast-and-slow transport channels.     

Decoherence and entanglement in coherent quantum tunneling of magnetization with dissipation

We study the coherent quantum tunneling of magnetization, for example, in a biaxial molecular magnet with dissipation of the environment which results in the suppression of the tunneling and therefore the decoherence of superposition of macroscopic quantum states in terms of the general spin-boson model. The degree of entanglement between the magnet and the environment is evaluated explicitly with the help of reduced density matrix. We show an interesting relation that the degree of entanglement approaches maximum value when the coherent tunneling is suppressed completely.     

Nanoscale superconducting quantum bits

Various physical systems were proposed for quantum information processing. Among those nanoscale devices appear most promising for integration in electronic circuits and large-scale applications. We discuss Josephson junction circuits in two regimes where they can be used for quantum computing. These systems combine intrinsic coherence of the superconducting state with control possibilities of single-charge circuits. In the regime where the typical charging energy dominates over the Josephson coupling, the low-temperature dynamics is limited to two states differing by a Cooper-pair charge on a superconducting island. In the opposite regime of prevailing Josephson energy, the phase (or flux) degree of freedom can be used to store and process quantum information. Under suitable conditions the system reduces to two states with different flux configurations. Several qubits can be joined together into a register. The quantum state of a qubit register can be manipulated by voltage and magnetic field pulses. The qubits are inevitably coupled to the environment. However, estimates of the phase coherence time show that many elementary quantum logic operations can be performed before the phase coherence is lost. In addition to manipulations, the final state of the qubits has to be read out. This quantum measurement process can be accomplished using a single-electron transistor for charge Josephson qubits, and a d.c.-SQUID for flux qubits. Recent successful experiments with superconducting qubits demonstrate for the first time quantum coherence in macroscopic systems.     

220 GHz回旋管脉冲磁场系统和电子枪的设计与实验研究

 根据220 GHz回旋管的工作要求,设计了其所需的脉冲磁场系统与电子枪。脉冲磁场系统采用哑铃状结构,具有均匀区长、电阻小与电感小等优点,可以在较低电容与电压下获得更高的脉冲峰值磁场,并分析了其脉冲放电特性。电子枪采用双阳极磁控注入枪,用EGUN对其进行了设计优化,电子注纵横速度比为1.53,速度零散为3.1%。实验研究表明,脉冲磁场峰值强度达到8 T,电子注电流达到2 A,电子电流基本传输到靶片,控制极与阳极没有截获到电子,脉冲磁场系统与电子枪工作正常,达到设计要求。     

Measurements of the vertical coherence length in neutron interferometry

The study and use of macroscopic quantum coherence requires long coherence lengths. Here we describe an approach to measuring the vertical coherence length in neutron interferometry, along with improvements to the NIST interferometer that led to a measured coherence length of 790 A. The measurement is based on introducing a path separation and measuring the loss in contrast as this separation is increased. The measured coherence length is consistent with the momentum distribution of the neutron beam. Finally, we demonstrate that the loss in contrast with beam displacement in one leg of the interferometer can be recovered by introducing a corresponding displacement in the second leg.     

汞原子塞曼效应分裂谱线相对强度的测量

为了研究塞曼效应分裂谱线的相对强度,分析了Hg(546.1 nm)谱线能级在外磁场中的分裂情况,详细给出了分裂能级的量子数分布和理论相对强度;在此基础上采用CCD拍摄了分裂谱线干涉圆环的图像,并对其进行了强度分析,通过图像强度处理得到各分裂谱线相对强度与理论分析结果十分接近;表明采用CCD图像技术能较好的分析塞曼效应现象和规律.