3,188 research outputs found
Quiet Sun magnetic fields observed by Hinode: Support for a local dynamo
The Hinode mission has revealed copious amounts of horizontal flux covering
the quiet Sun. Local dynamo action has been proposed to explain the presence of
this flux. We sought to test whether the quiet Sun flux detected by Hinode is
due to a local or the global dynamo by studying long-term variations in the
polarisation signals detectable at the disc centre of the quiet Sun between
November 2006 and May 2012, with particular emphasis on weak signals in the
internetwork. The investigation focusses on line-integrated circular
polarisation V_tot and linear polarisation LP_tot profiles obtained from the Fe
I 6302.5 \AA absorption line in Hinode SOT/SP. Both circular and linear
polarisation signals show no overall variation in the fraction of selected
pixels from 2006 until 2012. There is also no variation in the magnetic flux in
this interval of time. The probability density functions (PDF) of the
line-of-sight magnetic flux can be fitted with a power law from 1.17 x 10^17 Mx
to 8.53 x 10^18 Mx with index \alpha=-1.82 \pm 0.02 in 2007. The variation of
\alpha 's across all years does not exceed a significance of 1\sigma. Linearly
polarised features are also fitted with a power law, with index \alpha=-2.60
\pm 0.06 in 2007. Indices derived from linear polarisation PDFs of other years
also show no significant variation. Our results show that the ubiquitous
horizontal polarisation on the edges of bright granules seen by Hinode are
invariant during the minimum of cycle 23. This supports the notion that the
weak circular and linear polarisation is primarily caused by an independent
local dynamo
The new surprising behaviour of the two "prototype" blazars PKS 2155-304 and 3C 279
Recent VHE observations have unveiled a surprising behaviour in two
well-known blazars at opposite sides of the blazar sequence. PKS 2155-304 have
shown for the first time in an HBL a large Compton dominance, high gamma-ray
luminosities and a cubic relation between X-ray and VHE fluxes. 3C 279 is the
first FSRQ detected at VHE. The high luminosity required to overcome the
significant absorption caused by the BLR emission cannot be easily reconciled
with the historical and quasi-simultaneous SED properties. Both cases shed a
new light on the structure and ambient fields of blazars. Contrary to previous
claims, it is also shown that 3C 279 --as any FSRQ-- cannot in general provide
robust constraints on the EBL.Comment: Proceedings of "4th Heidelberg International Symposium on High Energy
Gamma-Ray Astronomy 2008" (Gamma 2008), July 7-11, 2008. Slightly refined
text with updated reference
Self-aligned fabrication process for silicon quantum computer devices
We describe a fabrication process for devices with few quantum bits (qubits),
which are suitable for proof-of-principle demonstrations of silicon-based
quantum computation. The devices follow the Kane proposal to use the nuclear
spins of 31P donors in 28Si as qubits, controlled by metal surface gates and
measured using single electron transistors (SETs). The accurate registration of
31P donors to control gates and read-out SETs is achieved through the use of a
self-aligned process which incorporates electron beam patterning, ion
implantation and triple-angle shadow-mask metal evaporation
Radio-frequency operation of a double-island single-electron transistor
We present results on a double-island single-electron transistor (DISET)
operated at radio-frequency (rf) for fast and highly sensitive detection of
charge motion in the solid state. Using an intuitive definition for the charge
sensitivity, we compare a DISET to a conventional single-electron transistor
(SET). We find that a DISET can be more sensitive than a SET for identical,
minimum device resistances in the Coulomb blockade regime. This is of
particular importance for rf operation where ideal impedance matching to 50 Ohm
transmission lines is only possible for a limited range of device resistances.
We report a charge sensitivity of 5.6E-6 e/sqrt(Hz) for a rf-DISET, together
with a demonstration of single-shot detection of small (<=0.1e) charge signals
on microsecond timescales.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Development and operation of the twin radio frequency single electron transistor for solid state qubit readout
Ultra-sensitive detectors and readout devices based on the radio frequency
single electron transistor (rf-SET) combine near quantum-limited sensitivity
with fast operation. Here we describe a twin rf-SET detector that uses two
superconducting rf-SETs to perform fast, real-time cross-correlated
measurements in order to distinguish sub-electron signals from charge noise on
microsecond time-scales. The twin rf-SET makes use of two tuned resonance
circuits to simultaneously and independently address both rf-SETs using
wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and a single cryogenic amplifier. We
focus on the operation of the twin rf-SET as a charge detector and evaluate the
cross-talk between the two resonance circuits. Real time suppression of charge
noise is demonstrated by cross correlating the signals from the two rf-SETs.
For the case of simultaneous operation, the rf-SETs had charge sensitivities of
and .Comment: Updated version, including new content. Comments most welcome:
[email protected] or [email protected]
Observing sub-microsecond telegraph noise with the radio frequency single electron transistor
Telegraph noise, which originates from the switching of charge between
meta-stable trapping sites, becomes increasingly important as device sizes
approach the nano-scale. For charge-based quantum computing, this noise may
lead to decoherence and loss of read out fidelity. Here we use a radio
frequency single electron transistor (rf-SET) to probe the telegraph noise
present in a typical semiconductor-based quantum computer architecture. We
frequently observe micro-second telegraph noise, which is a strong function of
the local electrostatic potential defined by surface gate biases. We present a
method for studying telegraph noise using the rf-SET and show results for a
charge trap in which the capture and emission of a single electron is
controlled by the bias applied to a surface gate.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Physics. Comments
always welcome, email [email protected], [email protected]
Modeling Single Electron Transfer in Si:P Double Quantum Dots
Solid-state systems such as P donors in Si have considerable potential for
realization of scalable quantum computation. Recent experimental work in this
area has focused on implanted Si:P double quantum dots (DQDs) that represent a
preliminary step towards the realization of single donor charge-based qubits.
This paper focuses on the techniques involved in analyzing the charge transfer
within such DQD devices and understanding the impact of fabrication parameters
on this process. We show that misalignment between the buried dots and surface
gates affects the charge transfer behavior and identify some of the challenges
posed by reducing the size of the metallic dot to the few donor regime.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Nanotechnolog
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