No Arabic abstract
We study the decoherence and relaxation of a single elementary electronic excitation propagating in a one-dimensional chiral conductor. Using two-particle interferences in the electronic analog of the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment, we analyze quantitatively the decoherence scenario of a single electron propagating along a quantum Hall edge channel at filling factor 2. The decoherence results from the emergence of collective neutral excitations induced by Coulomb interaction and leading, in one dimension, to the destruction of the elementary quasiparticle. This study establishes the relevance of electron quantum optics setups to provide stringent tests of strong interaction effects in one-dimensional conductors described by Luttinger liquids paradigm.
We show that a one dimensional disordered conductor with correlated disorder has an extended state and a Landauer resistance that is non-zero in the limit of infinite system size in contrast to the predictions of the scaling theory of Anderson localization. The delocalization transition is not related to any underlying symmetry of the model such as particle-hole symmetry. For a wire of finite length the effect manifests as a sharp transmission resonance that narrows as the length of the wire is increased. Experimental realizations and applications are discussed including the possibility of constructing a narrow band light filter.
Four discrete MnIII/MnII tetra-nuclear complexes with double-cuboidal core were synthesized. dc magnetic measurements show that both Mn2+ - Mn3+ and Mn3+ - Mn3+ magnetic interactions are ferromagnetic in three samples leading to an S = 9 ground state for the Mn4 unit. Furthermore, these complexes are Single-Molecule Magnets (SMMs) clearly showing both thermally activated and ground state tunneling regimes. Slight changes in the [Mn4] core geometry result in an S = 1 ground state in fourth sample. A one-dimensional assembly of [Mn4] units was obtained in the same synthetic conditions with the subsequent addition of NaN3. Double chair-like N3- bridges connect identical [Mn4] units into a chain arrangement. This material behaves as an Ising assembly of S = 9 tetramers weakly antiferromagnetically coupled. Slow relaxation of the magnetization is observed at low temperature for the first time in an antiferromagnetic chain, following an activated behavior with 47 K and tau_0 = 7x10^-11 s. The observation of this original thermally activated relaxation process is induced by finite-size effects and in particular by the non-compensation of spins in segments of odd-number units. Generalizing the known theories on the dynamic properties of poly-disperse finite segments of antiferromagnetically coupled Ising spins, the theoretical expression of the characteristic energy gaps were estimated and successfully compared to the experimental values.
An electron is usually considered to have only one type of kinetic energy, but could it have more, for its spin and charge, or by exciting other electrons? In one dimension (1D), the physics of interacting electrons is captured well at low energies by the Tomonaga-Luttinger-Liquid (TLL) model, yet little has been observed experimentally beyond this linear regime. Here, we report on measurements of many-body modes in 1D gated-wires using a tunnelling spectroscopy technique. We observe two separate Fermi seas at high energies, associated with spin and charge excitations, together with the emergence of three additional 1D replica modes that strengthen with decreasing wire length. The effective interaction strength in the wires is varied by changing the amount of 1D inter-subband screening by over 45%. Our findings demonstrate the existence of spin-charge separation in the whole energy band outside the low-energy limit of validity of the TLL model, and also set a limit on the validity of the newer nonlinear TLL theory.
We re-examine the quantum tau_q and transport tau_t scattering lifetimes due to background impurities in two-dimensional systems. We show that the well-known logarithmic divergence in the quantum lifetime is due to the non-physical assumption of an infinitely thick heterostructure, and demonstrate that the existing non-divergent multiple scattering theory can lead to unphysical quantum scattering lifetimes in high quality heterostructures. We derive a non-divergent scattering lifetime for finite thickness structures, which can be used both with lowest order perturbation theory and the multiple scattering theory. We calculate the quantum and transport lifetimes for electrons in generic GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructures, and find that the correct `rule of thumb to distinguish the dominant scattering mechanisms in GaAs heterostructures should be tau_t/tau_q < 10 for background impurities and tau_t/tau_q > 10 for remote impurities. Finally we present the first comparison of theoretical results for tau_q and tau_t with experimental data from a GaAs 2DEG in which only background impurity scattering is present. We obtain excellent agreement between the calculations and experimental data, and are able to extract the background impurity density in both the GaAs and AlGaAs regions.
How does an initially homogeneous spin-polarization in a confined two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling evolve in time? How does the relaxation time depend on system size? We study these questions for systems of a size that is much larger than the Fermi wavelength, but comparable and even shorter than the spin relaxation length. Depending on the confinement spin-relaxation may become faster or slower than in the bulk. An initially homogeneously polarized spin system evolves into a spiral pattern.