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Register a new userCoherent transport through a Majorana island in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer
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Majorana zero modes are leading candidates for topological quantum computation due to non-local qubit encoding and non-abelian exchange statistics. Spatially separated Majorana modes are expected to allow phase-coherent single-electron transport through a topological superconducting island via a mechanism referred to as teleportation. Here we experimentally investigate such a system by patterning an elongated epitaxial InAs-Al island embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. With increasing parallel magnetic field, a discrete sub-gap state in the island is lowered to zero energy yielding persistent 1e-periodic Coulomb blockade conductance peaks (e is the elementary charge). In this condition, conductance through the interferometer is observed to oscillate in a perpendicular magnetic field with a flux period of h/e (h is Plancks constant), indicating coherent transport of single electrons through the islands, a signature of electron teleportation via Majorana modes, could also be observed, suggesting additional non-Majorana mechanisms for 1e transport through these moderately short wires.
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The Josephson current through an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer, in which a quantum dot (QD) is situated on one arm and a magnetic flux $Phi$ threads through the ring, has been investigated. With the existence of the magnetic flux, the relation of the Josephson current and the superconductor phase is complex, and the system can be adjusted to $pi$ junction by either modulating the magnetic flux or the QDs energy level $varepsilon_d$. Due to the electron-hole symmetry, the Josephson current $I$ has the property $I(varepsilon_d,Phi)=I(-varepsilon_d,Phi+pi)$. The Josephson current exhibits a jump when a pair of Andreev bound states aligns with the Fermi energy. The condition for the current jump is given. In particularly, we find that the position of the current jump and the position of the maximum value of the critical current $I_c$ are identical. Due to the interference between the two paths, the critical current $I_c$ versus the QDs level $varepsilon_d$ shows a typical Fano shape, which is similar to the Fano effect in the corresponding normal device. But they also show some differences. For example, the critical current never reaches zero for any parameters, while the current in the normal device can reach zero at the destruction point.
One of the points at issue with closed-loop-type interferometers is beating in the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations. Recent observations suggest the possibility that the beating results from the Berry-phase pickup by the conducting electrons in materials with the strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI). In this study, we also observed beats in the AB oscillations in a gate-defined closed-loop interferometer fabricated on a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron-gas heterostructure. Since this heterostructure has very small SOI, the picture of the Berry-phase pickup is ruled out. The observation of beats in this study, with the controllability of forming a single transverse subband mode in both arms of our gate-defined interferometer, also rules out the often-claimed multiple transverse subband effect. It is observed that nodes of the beats with an h/2e period exhibit a parabolic distribution for varying the side gate. These results are shown to be well interpreted, without resorting to the SOI effect, by the existence of two-dimensional multiple longitudinal modes in a single transverse subband. The Fourier spectrum of measured conductance, despite showing multiple h/e peaks with the magnetic-field dependence that are very similar to that from strong-SOI materials, can also be interpreted as the two-dimensional multiple-longitudinal-modes effect.
According to Bohrs complementarity principle, a particle possesses wave-like properties only when the different paths the particle may take are indistinguishable. In a canonical example of a two-path interferometer with a which-path detector, observation of interference and obtaining which-path information are mutually exclusive. Such duality has been demonstrated in optics with a pair of correlated photons and in solid-state devices with phase-coherent electrons. In the latter case, which-path information was provided by a charge detector embedded near one path of a two-path electron interferometer. Note that suppression of interference can always be understood either as obtaining path information or as unavoidable back action by the detector. The present study reports on dephasing of an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring interferometer via a coupled charge detector adjacent to the ring. In contrast to the two-path interferometer, charge detection in the ring does not always provide path information. Indeed, we found that the interference was suppressed only when path information could be acquired, even if only in principle. This demonstrates that dephasing does not always take place by coupling the `environment to the interfering particle: path information of the particle must be available too. Moreover, this is valid regardless of the strength of environment-interferometer coupling, which refutes the general notion of the effect of strong interaction with the environment. In other words, it verifies that an acquisition of which-path information is more fundamental than the back-action in understanding quantum mechanical complementarity.
We address the quantum dot phase measurement problem in an open Aharonov-Bohm interferometer, assuming multiple transport channels. In such a case, the quantum dot is characterized by more than one intrinsic phase for the electrons transmission. It is shown that the phase which would be extracted by the usual experimental method (i.e. by monitoring the shift of the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, as in Schuster {it et al.}, Nature {bf 385}, 417 (1997)) does not coincide with any of the dot intrinsic phases, but is a combination of them. The formula of the measured phase is given. The particular case of a quantum dot containing a $S=1/2$ spin is discussed and variations of the measured phase with less than $pi$ are found, as a consequence of the multichannel transport.
We define two laterally gated small quantum dots (~ 15 electrons) in an Aharonov-Bohm geometry in which the coupling between the two dots can be broadly changed. For weakly coupled quantum dots we find Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. In an intermediate coupling regime we concentrate on the molecular states of the double dot and extract the magnetic field dependence of the coherent coupling.
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