Electron-phonon coupling in metallic carbon nanotubes: Dispersionless electron propagation despite dissipation

A recent study [Rosati, Dolcini, and Rossi, Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 243101 (2015)] has predicted that, while in semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) an electronic wave packet experiences the typical spatial diffusion of conventional materials, in metallic SWNTs its shape remains essentially unaltered up to micron distances at room temperature, even in the presence of the electron-phonon coupling. Here, by utilizing a Lindblad-based density-matrix approach enabling us to account for both dissipation and decoherence effects, we test such prediction by analyzing various aspects that were so far unexplored. In particular, accounting for initial nonequilibrium excitations, characterized by an excess energy $E_0$, and including both intra- and interband phonon scattering, we show that for realistically high values of $E_0$ the electronic diffusion is extremely small and nearly independent of its energetic distribution, in spite of a significant energy-dissipation and decoherence dynamics. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the effect is robust with respect to the variation of the chemical potential. Our results thus suggest that metallic SWNTs are a promising platform to realise quantum channels for the non-dispersive transmission of electronic wave packets.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Fractional charge in the noise of Luttinger liquid systems

The current noise of a voltage biased interacting quantum wire adiabatically connected to metallic leads is computed in presence of an impurity in the wire. We find that in the weak backscattering limit the Fano factor characterizing the ratio between shot noise and backscattering current crucially depends on the noise frequency relative to the ballistic frequency v_F/gL, where v_F is the Fermi velocity, g the Luttinger liquid interaction parameter, and L the length of the wire. In contrast to chiral Luttinger liquids, the noise is not only due to the Poissonian backscattering of fractionally charged quasiparticles at the impurity, but also depends on Andreev-type reflections of plasmons at the contacts, so that the frequency dependence of the noise needs to be analyzed to extract the fractional charge e*=e g of the bulk excitations. We show that the frequencies needed to see interaction effects in the Fano factor are within experimental reach.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, conference proceedings of Fluctuations and Noise 2005, Austin, Texa

Appearance of fractional charge in the noise of non-chiral Luttinger liquids

The current noise of a voltage biased interacting quantum wire adiabatically connected to metallic leads is computed in presence of an impurity in the wire. We find that in the weak backscattering limit the Fano factor characterizing the ratio between noise and backscattered current crucially depends on the noise frequency $\omega$ relative to the ballistic frequency $v_F/gL$, where $v_F$ is the Fermi velocity, $g$ the Luttinger liquid interaction parameter, and $L$ the length of the wire. In contrast to chiral Luttinger liquids the noise is not only due to the Poissonian backscattering of fractionally charged quasiparticles at the impurity, but also depends on Andreev-type reflections at the contacts, so that the frequency dependence of the noise needs to be analyzed to extract the fractional charge $e^*=e g$ of the bulk excitations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, final version, to appear in PR

Finite-temperature properties of the Hubbard chain with bond-charge interaction

We investigate the one-dimensional Hubbard model with an additional bond-charge interaction, recently considered in the description of compounds that exhibit strong 1D features above the temperature of ordered phases. The partition function of the model is exactly calculated for a value of the bond-charge coupling; the behavior of the specific heat and spin susceptibility as a function of temperature is derived at arbitrary filling, and particularly discussed across the occurring metal-insulator transition. The results show that the bond-charge terms weaken the spin excitations of the system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figure

Spin-fermion mappings for even Hamiltonian operators

We revisit the Jordan-Wigner transformation, showing that --rather than a non-local isomorphism between different fermionic and spin Hamiltonian operators-- it can be viewed in terms of local identities relating different realizations of projection operators. The construction works for arbitrary dimension of the ambient lattice, as well as of the on-site vector space, generalizing Jordan-Wigner's result. It provides direct mapping of local quantum spin problems into local fermionic problems (and viceversa), under the (rather physical) requirement that the latter are described by Hamiltonian's which are even products of fermionic operators. As an application, we specialize to mappings between constrained-fermions models and spin 1 models on chains, obtaining in particular some new integrable spin Hamiltonian, and the corresponding ground state energies.Comment: 7 pages, ReVTeX file, no figure

Erratum to: Confinement versus interface bound states in spin-orbit coupled nanowires (The European Physical Journal Plus, (2020), 135, 7, (597), 10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00614-2)

During production mistakes have been introduced

Switching the sign of Josephson current through Aharonov-Bohm interferometry

We investigate the DC Josephson effect in a superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction where the normal region consists of a ballistic ring. We show that a fully controllable $\pi$-junction can be realized through the electro-magnetostatic Aharonov-Bohm effect in the ring. The sign and the magnitude of the supercurrent can be tuned by varying the magnetic flux and the gate voltage applied to one arm, around suitable values. The implementation in a realistic set-up is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Strongly Interacting Luttinger Liquid and Superconductivity in an Exactly Solvable Model

A new family of exactly solvable one dimensional models with a hard-core repulsive potential is solved by the Bethe Ansatz for an arbitrary hard-core radius. The exact ground state phase diagrams in a plane 'electron density - on-site interaction' have been studied for several values of a hard-core radius. It is shown that superconducting phase and strongly interacting Luttinger liquid state are coexisted at a high electron density and unusually high value of repulsive on-site Coulomb interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTe

Adiabatic Magnetization of Superconductors as a High-Performance Cooling Mechanism

The adiabatic magnetization of a superconductor is a cooling principle proposed in the 30s, which has never been exploited up to now. Here we present a detailed dynamic description of the effect, computing the achievable final temperatures as well as the process timescales for different superconductors in various regimes. We show that, although in the experimental conditions explored so far the method is in fact inefficient, a suitable choice of initial temperatures and metals can lead to unexpectedly large cooling effect, even in the presence of dissipative phenomena. Our results suggest that this principle can be re-envisaged today as a performing refrigeration method to access the microK regime in nanodevices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 color figure

Wigner-function formalism applied to semiconductor quantum devices: Failure of the conventional boundary condition scheme

The Wigner-function formalism is a well-known approach to model charge transport in semiconductor nanodevices. The primary goal of the present article is to point out and explain the intrinsic limitations of the conventional quantum-device modeling based on such a Wigner-function paradigm, providing a definite answer to open questions related to the application of the conventional spatial boundary condition scheme to the Wigner transport equation. Our analysis shows that (i) in the absence of energy dissipation (coherent limit) the solution of the Wigner equation equipped with given boundary conditions is not unique, and (ii) when dissipation and decoherence phenomena are taken into account via a relaxation-time approximation, the solution, although unique, is not necessarily a physical Wigner function