Accessing nanomechanical resonators via a fast microwave circuit

The measurement of micron-sized mechanical resonators by electrical techniques is difficult, because of the combination of a high frequency and a small mechanical displacement which together suppress the electromechanical coupling. The only electromagnetic technique proven up to the range of several hundred MHz requires the usage of heavy magnetic fields and cryogenic conditions. Here we show how, without the need of either of them, to fully electrically detect the vibrations of conductive nanomechanical resonators up to the microwave regime. We use the electrically actuated vibrations to modulate an LC tank circuit which blocks the stray capacitance, and detect the created sideband voltage by a microwave analyzer. We show the novel technique up to mechanical frequencies of 200 MHz. Finally, we estimate how one could approach the quantum limit of mechanical systems

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Electronic cooling of a submicron-sized metallic beam

We demonstrate electronic cooling of a suspended AuPd island using superconductor-insulator-normal metal tunnel junctions. This was achieved by developing a simple fabrication method for reliably releasing narrow submicron sized metal beams. The process is based on reactive ion etching and uses a conducting substrate to avoid charge-up damage and is compatible with e.g. conventional e-beam lithography, shadow-angle metal deposition and oxide tunnel junctions. The devices function well and exhibit clear cooling; up to factor of two at sub-kelvin temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Correlated adiabatic and isocurvature CMB fluctuations in the wake of the WMAP

In general correlated models, in addition to the usual adiabatic component with a spectral index n_ad1 there is another adiabatic component with a spectral index n_ad2 generated by entropy perturbation during inflation. We extend the analysis of a correlated mixture of adiabatic and isocurvature CMB fluctuations of the WMAP group, who set the two adiabatic spectral indices equal. Allowing n_ad1 and n_ad2 to vary independently we find that the WMAP data favor models where the two adiabatic components have opposite spectral tilts. Using the WMAP data only, the 2-sigma upper bound for the isocurvature fraction f_iso of the initial power spectrum at k_0=0.05 Mpc^{-1} increases somewhat, e.g., from 0.76 of n_ad2 = n_ad1 models to 0.84 with a prior n_iso < 1.84 for the isocurvature spectral index. We also comment on a possible degeneration between the correlation component and the optical depth tau. Moreover, the measured low quadrupole in the TT angular power could be achieved by a strong negative correlation, but then one needs a large tau to fit the TE spectrum.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures. V2: Added 2 figures and revised a bit the results section. This is a slightly longer version than the published one in PR

High-fidelity adiabatic inversion of a 31P^{31}\mathrm{P} electron spin qubit in natural silicon

The main limitation to the high-fidelity quantum control of spins in semiconductors is the presence of strongly fluctuating fields arising from the nuclear spin bath of the host material. We demonstrate here a substantial improvement in single-qubit gate fidelities for an electron spin qubit bound to a $^{31}$P atom in natural silicon, by applying adiabatic inversion instead of narrow-band pulses. We achieve an inversion fidelity of 97%, and we observe signatures in the spin resonance spectra and the spin coherence time that are consistent with the presence of an additional exchange-coupled donor. This work highlights the effectiveness of adiabatic inversion techniques for spin control in fluctuating environments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Excitation of Single Quasiparticles in a Small Superconducting Al Island Connected to Normal-Metal Leads by Tunnel Junctions

We investigate the dynamics of individual quasiparticle excitations on a small superconducting aluminum island connected to normal metallic leads by tunnel junctions. We find the island to be free of excitations within the measurement resolution. This allows us to show that the residual heating, which typically limits experiments on superconductors, has an ultralow value of less than 0.1 aW. By injecting electrons with a periodic gate voltage, we probe electron-phonon interaction and relaxation down to a single quasiparticle excitation pair, with a measured recombination rate of 16 kHz. Our experiment yields a strong test of BCS theory in aluminum as the results are consistent with it without free parameters.Peer reviewe