No Arabic abstract
Quantum point contacts (QPC) are fundamental building blocks of nanoelectronic circuits. For their emission dynamics as well as for interaction effects such as the 0.7-anomaly the details of the electrostatic potential are important, but the precise potential shapes are usually unknown. Here, we measure the one-dimensional subband spacings of various QPCs as a function of their conductance and compare our findings with models of lateral parabolic versus hard wall confinement. We find that a gate-defined QPC near pinch-off is compatible with the parabolic saddle point scenario. However, as the number of populated subbands is increased Coulomb screening flattens the potential bottom and a description in terms of a finite hard wall potential becomes more realistic.
We investigate an electrostatically defined quantum point contact in a high-mobility InSb two-dimensional electron gas. Well-defined conductance plateaus are observed, and the subband structure of the quantum point contact is extracted from finite-bias measurements. The Zeeman splitting is measured in both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields. We find an in-plane g factor $|g_{parallel}^* | approx$ 40. The out-of-plane g factor is measured to be $|g_{perp}^* | approx$ 50, which is close to the g factor in the bulk.
Quantum point contacts exhibit mysterious conductance anomalies in addition to well known conductance plateaus at multiples of 2e^2/h. These 0.7 and zero-bias anomalies have been intensively studied, but their microscopic origin in terms of many-body effects is still highly debated. Here we use the charged tip of a scanning gate microscope to tune in situ the electrostatic potential of the point contact. While sweeping the tip distance, we observe repetitive splittings of the zero-bias anomaly, correlated with simultaneous appearances of the 0.7 anomaly. We interpret this behaviour in terms of alternating equilibrium and non-equilibrium Kondo screenings of different spin states localized in the channel. These alternating Kondo effects point towards the presence of a Wigner crystal containing several charges with different parities. Indeed, simulations show that the electron density in the channel is low enough to reach one-dimensional Wigner crystallization over a size controlled by the tip position.
We use a superconducting microresonator as a cavity to sense absorption of microwaves by a superconducting quantum point contact defined by surface gates over a proximitized two-dimensional electron gas. Renormalization of the cavity frequency with phase difference across the point contact is consistent with adiabatic coupling to Andreev bound states. Near $pi$ phase difference, we observe random fluctuations in absorption with gate voltage, related to quantum interference-induced modulations in the electron transmission. We identify features consistent with the presence of single Andreev bound states and describe the Andreev-cavity interaction using a dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model. By fitting the weak Andreev-cavity coupling, we extract ~GHz decoherence consistent with charge noise and the transmission dispersion associated with a localized state.
We report electron transport measurements of a silicon double dot formed in multi-gated metal-oxide-semiconductor structures with a 15-nm-thick silicon-on-insulator layer. Tunable tunnel coupling enables us to observe an excitation spectrum in weakly coupled dots and an energy level anticrossing in strongly coupled ones. Such a quantum dot molecule with both charge and energy quantization provides the essential prerequisite for future implementation of silicon-based quantum computations.
We consider electrostatically coupled quantum dots in topological insulators, otherwise confined and gapped by a magnetic texture. By numerically solving the (2+1) Dirac equation for the wave packet dynamics, we extract the energy spectrum of the coupled dots as a function of bias-controlled coupling and an external perpendicular magnetic field. We show that the tunneling energy can be controlled to a large extent by the electrostatic barrier potential. Particularly interesting is the coupling via Klein tunneling through a resonant valence state of the barrier. The effective three-level system nicely maps to a model Hamiltonian, from which we extract the Klein coupling between the confined conduction and valence dots levels. For large enough magnetic fields Klein tunneling can be completely blocked due to the enhanced localization of the degenerate Landau levels formed in the quantum dots.