Superconducting atomic contacts under microwave irradiation

We have measured the effect of microwave irradiation on the dc current-voltage characteristics of superconducting atomic contacts. The interaction of the external field with the ac supercurrents leads to replicas of the supercurrent peak, the well-known Shapiro resonances. The observation of supplementary fractional resonances for contacts containing highly transmitting conduction channels reveals their nonsinusoidal current-phase relation. The resonances sit on a background current which is itself deeply modified, as a result of photon-assisted multiple Andreev reflections. The results provide firm support for the full quantum theory of transport between two superconductors based on the concept of Andreev bound states.     

General transport properties of superconducting quantum point contacts: a Green functions approach

We discuss the general transport properties of superconducting quantum point contacts. We show how these properties can be obtained from a microscopic model using nonequilibrium Green’s function techniques. For the case of a one-channel contact we analyze the response under different biasing conditions: constant applied voltage, current bias and microwave-induced transport. Current fluctuations are also analyzed with particular emphasis on thermal and shot-noise. Finally, the case of superconducting transport through a resonant level is discussed. The calculated properties show a remarkable agreement with the available experimental data from atomic-size contacts measurements. We suggest the possibility of extending this comparison to several other predictions of the theory.     

Spin conductance and spin filtering in ferromagnetic semiconductor quantum point contacts

By combining the spin dependent transport properties of the ferromagnetic semiconductors with the basic physics of the quantum point contacts, we investigate the spin polarized transport through ferromagnetic semiconductor quantum point contacts. We find that the spin conductance strongly depends on the spin orientation, the magnitude of the spin splitting energy and the shape of the cross sections of the point contacts.     

Two-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect and entanglement in the electronic Hanbury Brown-Twiss setup

We analyze a Hanbury Brown-Twiss geometry in which particles are injected from two independent sources into a mesoscopic conductor in the quantum Hall regime. All partial waves end in different reservoirs without generating any single-particle interference; in particular, there is no single-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect. However, exchange effects lead to two-particle Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the zero-frequency current cross correlations. We demonstrate that this is related to two-particle orbital entanglement, detected via violation of a Bell inequality. The transport is along edge states and only adiabatic quantum point contacts and normal reservoirs are employed.     

弹道区的电子输运

本文重点评述了无散射区电子输运在实验和理论方面的最新进展,内容涵盖半导体量子点接触的加工工艺;电导的量子化及其成因;量子点接触串、并联后,欧姆定律的遵从性;弹道输运特性的应用;以及超导量子点接触临界电流的量子化。     

Nonuniform energy level broadening in open quantum dots: the influence of the closed dot eigenstates on transport

We present simulations of a realistically modeled quantum dot with soft boundaries and open leads supporting several modes. The wavefunctions of this open dot can be decomposed in terms of the eigenstates of a corresponding closed dot my means of projection. At particular resonances, this decomposition reveals that transport in the open dot can be mediated through a single eigenstate. Thus, the quantization of closed-dot energy levels can be preserved even as the dot is opened, but we find that there is a selection of particular eigenstates that depends strongly on the positions and nature of the contacts.     

硅纳米结构晶体管中与杂质量子点相关的量子输运

在小于10 nm的沟道空间中,杂质数目和杂质波动范围变得十分有限,这对器件性能有很大的影响.局域纳米空间中的电离杂质还能够展现出量子点特性,为电荷输运提供两个分立的杂质能级.利用杂质原子作为量子输运构件的硅纳米结构晶体管有望成为未来量子计算电路的基本组成器件.本文结合安德森定域化理论和Hubbard带模型对单个、分立和耦合杂质原子系统中的量子输运特性进行了综述,系统介绍了提升杂质原子晶体管工作温度的方法.     

导线非共线的分子器件输运性质的第一性原理研究

分子器件是电子器件向小体积化发展的极限,分子器件中的电子在输运过程中体现出明显的量子效应,分子导线与分子接触的位置和导线间的角度等器件结构因素都会对分子器件的输运性质产生较大的影响.迄今为止,尚未见利用第一性原理量子输运计算方法研究导线非共线的分子器件输运性质的报道.本文以金-苯(硫醇)-金结构的分子器件为例,利用基于非平衡格林函数理论和密度泛函理论的第一性原理量子输运计算方法对其输运性质进行了系统研究,特别注重于研究随着非共线导线间导线夹角角度的变化及导线和苯(硫醇)分子接触位置的不同对器件输运性质的影响.计算表明,金导线与苯(硫醇)的接触位置及导线的夹角等器件结构细节不仅能够定量地影响金-苯(硫醇)-金分子器件的电流大小,还能够定性地改变器件的输运性质,使得部分器件结构出现负微分电阻效应.研究结果对全面理解分子器件的输运性质具有一定的指导意义.     

Adiabatic Passage of Collective Excitations in Atomic Ensembles

We describe a theoretical scheme that allows for transfer of quantum states of atomic collective excitation between two macroscopic atomic ensembles localized in two spatially-separated domains. The conception is based on the occurrence of double-exciton dark states due to the collective destructive quantum interference of the emissions from the two atomic ensembles. With an adiabatically coherence manipulation for the atom-field couplings by stimulated Rmann scattering, the dark states will extrapolate from an exciton state of an ensemble to that of another. This realizes the transport of quantum information among atomic ensembles.     

Adiabatic Passage of Collective Excitations in Atomic Ensembles

We describe a theoretical scheme that allows for transfer of quantum states of atomic collective excitation between two macroscopic atomic ensembles localized in two spatially-separated domains. The conception is based on the occurrence of double-exciton dark states due to the collective destructive quantum interference of the emissions from the two atomic ensembles. With an adiabatically coherence manipulation for the atom-field couplings by stimulated Ramann scattering, the dark states will extrapolate from an exciton state of an ensemble to that of another. This realizes the transport of quantum information among atomic ensembles.     

Spin accumulation and spin relaxation in a large open quantum dot

We report electronic control and measurement of an imbalance between spin-up and spin-down electrons in micron-scale open quantum dots. Spin injection and detection were achieved with quantum point contacts tuned to have spin-selective transport, with four contacts per dot for realizing a nonlocal spin-valve circuit. This provides an interesting system for studies of spintronic effects since the contacts to reservoirs can be controlled and characterized with high accuracy. We show how this can be used to extract in a single measurement the relaxation time for electron spins inside a ballistic dot (tau(sf) approximately equal to 300 ps) and the degree of spin polarization of the contacts (P approximately equal to 0.8).     

相干输运中的接点问题

为了研究介观体系的相干输运中接点的重要作用,采用一简单的纳米单势垒“二维-一维-二维”(2D-1D-2D)模型,应用散射矩阵方法和托马斯-费米近似,计算了体系透射率和在直流电压下电势分布. 结果表明： 1)接点对其透射率有显著的影响; 2)电势降落表现的电导性质违背了与经典串联电路中等价的基尔霍夫定律. 因此介观体系中各器件与接点间是量子相干的,考虑接点问题有利于对介观体系相干输运更为深入的研究. 关键词： 相干输运 接点 介观体系     

Fractional conductance in hydrogen-embedded gold nanowires

Interaction of the physically adsorbed molecular hydrogen with a breaking gold nanowire results in additional stable atomic configurations in few atom contacts and appearance of fractional peaks in the conductance histogram. This effect is explained by peculiar dynamic evolution of the hydrogen-embedded nanoconstriction due to competition between tensile and capillary forces. Dimerization within the atomic wire and hydrogen-assisted stabilization of gold dimers results in preferable atomic arrangements with conductivity close to 0.5 and 1.5 of quantum conductance unit G(0)=2e(2)/h.     

Conductance histograms and conducting channels in atomic-scale metallic contacts

Properties of the conductance and transport channels of atomic-scale contacts are discussed within the free electron model. In agreement with recent experiments, we find that, owing to the contribution of evanescent channels, even when the conductance is close to an integer number N of conductance quanta more than N channels may contribute significantly to the current. We show that the observation of peaks at integer multiples of G₀ in conductance histograms is not a signature of conductance quantization of individual contacts. However, the observed peaks can still be associated to the quantum nature of electron transport in metallic contacts.     

Macroscopic coherent rectification in Andreev interferometers

We investigate nonlinear transport through quantum coherent metallic conductors contacted to superconducting components. We find that in certain geometries, the presence of superconductivity generates a large, finite-average rectification effect. Specializing to Andreev interferometers, we show that the direction and magnitude of rectification can be controlled by a magnetic flux tuning the superconducting phase difference at two contacts. In particular, this results in the breakdown of an Onsager reciprocity relation at finite bias. The rectification current is macroscopic in that it scales with the linear conductance, and we find that it exceeds 5% of the linear current at sub-gap biases of a few tens of microelectronvolts.     

Generation of Fabry–Pérot oscillations and Dirac state in two-dimensional topological insulators by gate voltage

We investigate electron transport through Hg Te ribbons embedded by strip-shape gate voltage through using a nonequilibrium Green function technique. The numerical calculations show that as the gate voltage is increased, an edgerelated state in the valence band structure of the system shifts upwards, then hangs inside the band gap and merges into the conduction band finally. It is interesting that as the gate voltage is increased continuously, another edge-related state in the valence band also shifts upwards in the small-k region and contacts the previous one to form a Dirac cone in the band structure. Meanwhile in this process, the conductance spectrum displays as multiple resonance peaks characterized by some strong antiresonance valleys in the band gap, then behaves as Fabry–P′erot oscillations and finally develops into a nearly perfect quantum plateau with a value of 2e~2/h. These results give a physical picture to understand the formation process of the Dirac state driven by the gate voltage and provide a route to achieving particular quantum oscillations of the electronic transport in nanodevices.     

Role of coherence in resistance quantization

The quantization of resistances in the quantum Hall effect and ballistic transport through quantum point contacts is compared with the quantization of the charge relaxation resistance of a coherent mesoscopic capacitor. While the former two require the existence of a perfectly transmitting channel, the charge relaxation resistance remains quantized for arbitrary backscattering. The quantum Hall effect and the quantum point contact require only local phase coherence. In contrast quantization of the charge relaxation resistance requires global phase coherence.     

Coherence properties and quantum state transportation in an optical conveyor belt

We have prepared and detected quantum coherences of trapped cesium atoms with long dephasing times. Controlled transport by an "optical conveyor belt" over macroscopic distances preserves the atomic coherence with slight reduction of coherence time. The limiting dephasing effects are experimentally identified, and we present an analytical model of the reversible and irreversible dephasing mechanisms. Our experimental methods are applicable at the single-atom level. Coherent quantum bit operations along with quantum state transport open the route towards a "quantum shift register" of individual neutral atoms.     

Charging effects in biased molecular devices

The influence of charging effects on the transport characteristics of a molecular wire bridging two metallic electrodes in the limit of weak contacts is studied by the generalized Breit–Wigner formula. Molecule is modeled as a quantum dot with discrete energy levels, while the coupling to the electrodes is treated within a broad-band theory. Owing to this model we find self-consistent occupation of particular energy levels and orbital energies of the wire in the presence of transport. The nonlinear conductance and current–voltage characteristics are investigated as a function of bias voltage in the case of symmetric and asymmetric coupling to the electrodes. It is shown that the shape of those curves are determined by the combined effect of the electronic structure of the molecule and by electron–electron repulsion.