Pressure dependence of Raman modes in double wall carbon nanotubes filled with α-Fe.

The preparation of highly anisotropic one-dimensional (1D) structures confined into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in general is a key objective in CNTs research. In this work, the capillary effect was used to fill double wall carbon nanotubes with iron. The samples are characterized by Mössbauer and Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning area electron diffraction, and magnetization. In order to investigate their structural stability and compare it with that of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), elucidating the differences induced by the inner-outer tube interaction, unpolarized Raman spectra of tangential modes of double wall carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) filled with 1D nanocrystallin α-Fe excited with 514 nm were studied at room temperature and elevated pressure. Up to 16 GPa we find a pressure coefficient for the internal tube of 4.3 cm−1 GPa−1 and for the external tube of 5.5 cm−1 GPa−1. In addition, the tangential band of the external and internal tubes broadens and decreases in amplitude. All findings lead to the conclusion that the outer tube acts as a protection shield for the inner tubes (at least up 16 GPa). Structural phase transitions were not observed in this range of pressure

Experimental violation of a Bell's inequality in time with weak measurement

The violation of J. Bell's inequality with two entangled and spatially separated quantum two- level systems (TLS) is often considered as the most prominent demonstration that nature does not obey ?local realism?. Under different but related assumptions of "macrorealism", plausible for macroscopic systems, Leggett and Garg derived a similar inequality for a single degree of freedom undergoing coherent oscillations and being measured at successive times. Such a "Bell's inequality in time", which should be violated by a quantum TLS, is tested here. In this work, the TLS is a superconducting quantum circuit whose Rabi oscillations are continuously driven while it is continuously and weakly measured. The time correlations present at the detector output agree with quantum-mechanical predictions and violate the inequality by 5 standard deviations.Comment: 26 pages including 10 figures, preprint forma

Quantum feedback control of a superconducting qubit: Persistent Rabi oscillations

The act of measurement bridges the quantum and classical worlds by projecting a superposition of possible states into a single, albeit probabilistic, outcome. The time-scale of this "instantaneous" process can be stretched using weak measurements so that it takes the form of a gradual random walk towards a final state. Remarkably, the interim measurement record is sufficient to continuously track and steer the quantum state using feedback. We monitor the dynamics of a resonantly driven quantum two-level system -- a superconducting quantum bit --using a near-noiseless parametric amplifier. The high-fidelity measurement output is used to actively stabilize the phase of Rabi oscillations, enabling them to persist indefinitely. This new functionality shows promise for fighting decoherence and defines a path for continuous quantum error correction.Comment: Manuscript: 5 Pages and 3 figures ; Supplementary Information: 9 pages and 3 figure

Spectrum of qubit oscillations from Bloch equations

We have developed a formalism suitable for calculation of the output spectrum of a detector continuously measuring quantum coherent oscillations in a solid-state qubit, starting from microscopic Bloch equations. The results coincide with that obtained using Bayesian and master equation approaches. The previous results are generalized to the cases of arbitrary detector response and finite detector temperature.Comment: 8 page

Quantum Zeno stabilization in weak continuous measurement of two qubits

We have studied quantum coherent oscillations of two qubits under continuous measurement by a symmetrically coupled mesoscopic detector. The analysis is based on a Bayesian formalism that is applicable to individual quantum systems. Measurement continuously collapses the two-qubit system to one of the sub-spaces of the Bell basis. For a detector with linear response this corresponds to measurement of the total spin of the qubits. In the other extreme of purely quadratic response the operator \sigma_y^1 \sigma_y^2 + \sigma_z^1 \sigma_z^2 is measured. In both cases, collapse naturally leads to spontaneous entanglement which can be identified by measurement of the power spectrum and/or the average current of the detector. Asymmetry between the two qubits results in evolution between the different measurement subspaces. However, when the qubits are even weakly coupled to the detector, a kind of quantum Zeno effect cancels the gradual evolution and replaces it with rare, abrupt switching events. We obtain the asymptotic switching rates for these events and confirm them with numerical simulations. We show how such switching affects the observable power spectrum on different time scales.Comment: 18 pages, 8 eps figures, reference adde

Quantum feedback control of a solid-state qubit

We have studied theoretically the basic operation of a quantum feedback loop designed to maintain a desired phase of quantum coherent oscillations in a single solid-state qubit. The degree of oscillations synchronization with external harmonic signal is calculated as a function of feedback strength, taking into account available bandwidth and coupling to environment. The feedback can efficiently suppress the dephasing of oscillations if the qubit coupling to the detector is stronger than coupling to environment.Comment: Extended version of cond-mat/0107280 (5 pages, 5 figures); to be published in PRB (RC

Entanglement of solid-state qubits by measurement

We show that two identical solid-state qubits can be made fully entangled (starting from completely mixed state) with probability 1/4 just measuring them by a detector, equally coupled to the qubits. This happens in the case of repeated strong (projective) measurements as well as in a more realistic case of weak continuous measurement. In the latter case the entangled state can be identified by a flat spectrum of the detector shot noise, while the non-entangled state (probability 3/4) leads to a spectral peak at the Rabi frequency with the maximum peak-to-pedestal ratio of 32/3.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure