No Arabic abstract
We have realized a quantum optics like Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) experiment by partitioning, on an electronic beam-splitter, single elementary electronic excitations produced one by one by an on-demand emitter. We show that the measurement of the output currents correlations in the HBT geometry provides a direct counting, at the single charge level, of the elementary excitations (electron/hole pairs) generated by the emitter at each cycle. We observe the antibunching of low energy excitations emitted by the source with thermal excitations of the Fermi sea already present in the input leads of the splitter, which suppresses their contribution to the partition noise. This effect is used to probe the energy distribution of the emitted wave-packets.
Graphene is considered to be a promising material for future electronics. The envisaged transistor applications often rely on precision cutting of graphene sheets with nanometer accuracy. In this letter we demonstrate graphene-based quantum dots created by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) with tip-assisted electrochemical etching. This lithography technique provides resolution of about 20 nm, which can probably be further improved by employing sharper tips and better humidity control. The behavior of our smallest dots in magnetic field has allowed us to identify the charge neutrality point and distinguish the states with one electron, no charge and one hole left inside the quantum dot.
The combined presence of a Rashba and a Zeeman effect in a ballistic one-dimensional conductor generates a spin pseudogap and the possibility to propagate a beam with well defined spin orientation. Without interactions transmission through a barrier gives a relatively well polarized beam. Using renormalization group arguments, we examine how electron-electron interactions may affect the transmission coefficient and the polarization of the outgoing beam.
The topological property in one dimension (1D) is protected by symmetry. Based on a concrete model, we show that since a 1D topological model usually contain two of the three Pauli matrix, the left one automatically become the protecting symmetry. We study the effect of disorder preserving or breaking the symmetry and show the nature of symmetry protecting in the 1D topological phase. Based on the 1D topological model, a stable quantum pumping can be constructed, which is topologically nontrivial and can be characterized by the Chern number. By calculating the instantaneous local current we show that an integer charge is pumped across a periodic chain in a cyclic process. Also on an open chain, an edge state can be transferred to the other edge by the quantum pumping. Furthermore we find that not only the quantum pumping is stable to on-site disorder, but also can be induced by it. These results may be realized experimentally using quasicrystals.
The recent developments of electron quantum optics in quantum Hall edge channels have given us new ways to probe the behavior of electrons in quantum conductors. It has brought new quantities called electronic coherences under the spotlight. In this paper, we explore the relations between electron quantum optics and signal processing through a global review of the various methods for accessing single- and two-electron coherences in electron quantum optics. We interpret electron quantum optics interference experiments as analog signal processing converting quantum signals into experimentally observable quantities such as current averages and correlations. This point of view also gives us a procedure to obtain quantum information quantities from electron quantum optics coherences. We illustrate these ideas by discussing two mode entanglement in electron quantum optics. We also sketch how signal processing ideas may open new perspectives for representing electronic coherences in quantum conductors and understand the properties of the underlying many-body electronic state.
In this paper, we review recent developments in the emerging field of electron quantum optics, stressing analogies and differences with the usual case of photon quantum optics. Electron quantum optics aims at preparing, manipulating and measuring coherent single electron excitations propagating in ballistic conductors such as the edge channels of a 2DEG in the integer quantum Hall regime. Because of the Fermi statistics and the presence of strong interactions, electron quantum optics exhibits new features compared to the usual case of photon quantum optics. In particular, it provides a natural playground to understand decoherence and relaxation effects in quantum transport.