General quantum restrictions on the noise performance of linear transistor amplifiers are used to identify the region in parameter space where the quantum-limited performance is achievable and to construct a practical procedure for approaching it experimentally using only the knowledge of directly measurable quantities: the gain, (differential) conductance and the output noise. A specific example of resonant barrier transistors is discussed.
We show that the Coulomb blockade in parallel dots pierced by magnetic flux $Phi$ completely blocks the resonant current for any value of $Phi$ except for integer multiples of the flux quantum $Phi_0$. This non-analytic (switching) dependence of the current on $Phi$ arises only when the dot states that carry the current are of the same energy. The time needed to reach the steady state, however, diverges when $Phito nPhi_0$.
Dynamical instability is an inherent feature of bosonic systems described by the Bogoliubov de Geenes (BdG) Hamiltonian. Since it causes the BdG system to collapse, it is generally thought that it should be avoided. Recently, there has been much effort to harness this instability for the benefit of creating a topological amplifier with stable bulk bands but unstable edge modes which can be populated at an exponentially fast rate. We present a theorem for determining the stability of states with energies sufficiently away from zero, in terms of an unconventional commutator between the number conserving part and number nonconserving part of the BdG Hamiltonian. We apply the theorem to a generalization of a model from Galilo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett, 115, 245302(2015)] for creating a topological amplifier in an interacting spin-1 atom system in a honeycomb lattice through a quench process. We use this model to illustrate how the vanishing of the unconventional commutator selects the symmetries for a system so that its bulk states are stable against (weak) pairing interactions. We find that as long as time reversal symmetry is preserved, our system can act like a topological amplifier, even in the presence of an onsite staggered potential which breaks the inversion symmetry.
We study theoretically how loss impacts the amplification and squeezing performance of a generic quantum travelling wave parametric amplifier. Unlike previous studies, we analyze how having different levels of loss at signal and idler frequencies can dramatically alter properties compared to the case of frequency-independent loss. We find that loss asymmetries increase the amplifiers added noise in comparison to the symmetric loss case. More surprisingly, even small levels of loss asymmetry can completely destroy any quantum squeezing of symmetric collective output quadratures, while nonetheless leaving the output state strongly entangled.
Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPA) have become key devices in quantum science and technology with superconducting circuits. In particular, they can be utilized as quantum-limited amplifiers or as a source of squeezed microwave fields. Here, we report on the detailed measurements of five flux-driven JPAs, three of them exhibiting a hysteretic dependence of the resonant frequency versus the applied magnetic flux. We model the measured characteristics by numerical simulations based on the two-dimensional potential landscape of the dc superconducting quantum interference devices (dc-SQUID), which provide the JPA nonlinearity, for a finite screening parameter $beta_mathrm{L},{>},0$ and demonstrate excellent agreement between the numerical results and the experimental data. Furthermore, we study the nondegenerate response of different JPAs and accurately describe the experimental results with our theory.
The effect of noise on the reversal of a magnetic dipole is investigated on the basis of computer simulation of the Landau-Lifshits equation. It is demonstrated that at the reversal by the pulse with sinusoidal shape, there exists the optimal duration, which minimizes the mean reversal time (MRT) and the standard deviation (jitter). Both the MRT and the jitter significantly depend on the angle between the reversal magnetic field and the anisotropy axis. At the optimal angle the MRT can be decreased by 7 times for damping $alpha$=1 and up to 2 orders of magnitude for $alpha$=0.01, and the jitter can be decreased from 1 to 3 orders of magnitude in comparison with the uniaxial symmetry case.