Introduction: Oligocene to Pleistocene Eustatic Change at the New Jersey Continental Margin--a Test of Sequence Stratigraphy

The emergence of seismic/sequence stratigraphy since the late 1970s has led to a revolution in stratigraphy and a renewal of interest in the stratigraphic response to eustasy. Two arguments were advanced in support of the eustatic interpretation. One involved widespread seismic evidence for the existence of regional unconformities (sequence boundaries) characterized by apparently abrupt basinward shifts in onlap, which were interpreted to imply relatively rapid falls of sea level with amplitudes of up to several hundred meters. The second was based on the purported global synchroneity of these unconformities, which, if correct, would be difficult to explain by other than a eustatic mechanism. The primary goals of Leg 174A are the following: 1. To date as precisely as possible sequence boundaries of Oligocene—Pleistocene age, and to compare this stratigraphic record with the timing of glacial-eustatic changes inferred from deep-sea d18O variations; 2. To place constraints on the amplitudes and rates of sea-level change that may have been responsible for unconformity development; 3. To assess the relationships between depositional facies and sequence architecture; and 4. To provide a baseline for future scientific ocean drilling that will address the effects and timing of sea-level changes on this and other passive continental margins. An additional goal for Leg 174A is technical. The leg represents the first attempt by scientific ocean drilling in almost 30 years to sample a thickly sedimented continental margin in water depths less than 150 m. Two sites (Sites 1071 and 1072) are located on the outer part of the continental shelf in water depths of 88-90 and 98-100 m, respectively. An additional site (Site 1073) is located on the uppermost continental slope, part of the Hudson Apron, in a water depth of 639 m

Nuclear spin relaxation probed by a single quantum dot

We present measurements on nuclear spin relaxation probed by a single quantum dot in a high-mobility electron gas. Current passing through the dot leads to a spin transfer from the electronic to the nuclear spin system. Applying electron spin resonance the transfer mechanism can directly be tuned. Additionally, the dependence of nuclear spin relaxation on the dot gate voltage is observed. We find electron-nuclear relaxation times of the order of 10 minutes

Molecular states in carbon nanotube double quantum dots

We report electrical transport measurements through a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) with three additional top-gates. At low temperatures the system acts as a double quantum dot with large inter-dot tunnel coupling allowing for the observation of tunnel-coupled molecular states extending over the whole double-dot system. We precisely extract the tunnel coupling and identify the molecular states by the sequential-tunneling line shape of the resonances in differential conductance.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Single-electron quantum dot in Si/SiGe with integrated charge-sensing

Single-electron occupation is an essential component to measurement and manipulation of spin in quantum dots, capabilities that are important for quantum information processing. Si/SiGe is of interest for semiconductor spin qubits, but single-electron quantum dots have not yet been achieved in this system. We report the fabrication and measurement of a top-gated quantum dot occupied by a single electron in a Si/SiGe heterostructure. Transport through the quantum dot is directly correlated with charge-sensing from an integrated quantum point contact, and this charge-sensing is used to confirm single-electron occupancy in the quantum dot.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, accepted version, to appear in Applied Physics Letter

Charge Sensing of an Artificial H2+ Molecule

We report charge detection studies of a lateral double quantum dot with controllable charge states and tunable tunnel coupling. Using an integrated electrometer, we characterize the equilibrium state of a single electron trapped in the doubled-dot (artificial H2+ molecule) by measuring the average occupation of one dot. We present a model where the electrostatic coupling between the molecule and the sensor is taken into account explicitly. From the measurements, we extract the temperature of the isolated electron and the tunnel coupling energy. It is found that this coupling can be tuned between 0 and 60 micro electron-volt in our device.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Revised version with added material. To be published in Physical Review

Control of Dephasing and Phonon Emission in Coupled Quantum Dots

We predict that phonon subband quantization can be detected in the non-linear electron current through double quantum dot qubits embedded into nano-size semiconductor slabs, acting as phonon cavities. For particular values of the dot level splitting $\Delta$, piezo-electric or deformation potential scattering is either drastically reduced as compared to the bulk case, or strongly enhanced due to phonon van Hove singularities. By tuning $\Delta$ via gate voltages, one can either control dephasing, or strongly increase emission into phonon modes with characteristic angular distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication as Rapid Comm. in Phys. Rev.

Dicke Effect in the Tunnel Current through two Double Quantum Dots

We calculate the stationary current through two double quantum dots which are interacting via a common phonon environment. Numerical and analytical solutions of a master equation in the stationary limit show that the current can be increased as well as decreased due to a dissipation mediated interaction. This effect is closely related to collective, spontaneous emission of phonons (Dicke super- and subradiance effect), and the generation of a `cross-coherence' with entanglement of charges in singlet or triplet states between the dots. Furthermore, we discuss an inelastic `current switch' mechanism by which one double dot controls the current of the other.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Photon-Assisted Transport Through Ultrasmall Quantum Dots: Influence of Intradot Transitions

We study transport through one or two ultrasmall quantum dots with discrete energy levels to which a time-dependent field is applied (e.g., microwaves). The AC field causes photon-assisted tunneling and also transitions between discrete energy levels of the dot. We treat the problem by introducing a generalization of the rotating-wave approximation to arbitrarily many levels. We calculate the dc-current through one dot and find satisfactory agreement with recent experiments by Oosterkamp et al. . In addition, we propose a novel electron pump consisting of two serially coupled single-level quantum dots with a time-dependent interdot barrier.Comment: 16 pages, Revtex, 10 eps-figure