71 research outputs found
Probe-Configuration-Dependent Decoherence in an Aharonov-Bohm Ring
We have measured transport through mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm (AB) rings with
two different four-terminal configurations. While the amplitude and the phase
of the AB oscillations are well explained within the framework of the
Landaur-B\"uttiker formalism, it is found that the probe configuration strongly
affects the coherence time of the electrons, i.e., the decoherence is much
reduced in the configuration of so-called nonlocal resistance. This result
should provide an important clue in clarifying the mechanism of quantum
decoherence in solids.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTe
Dephasing of Electrons in Mesoscopic Metal Wires
We have extracted the phase coherence time of electronic
quasiparticles from the low field magnetoresistance of weakly disordered wires
made of silver, copper and gold. In samples fabricated using our purest silver
and gold sources, increases as when the temperature
is reduced, as predicted by the theory of electron-electron interactions in
diffusive wires. In contrast, samples made of a silver source material of
lesser purity or of copper exhibit an apparent saturation of
starting between 0.1 and 1 K down to our base temperature of 40 mK. By
implanting manganese impurities in silver wires, we show that even a minute
concentration of magnetic impurities having a small Kondo temperature can lead
to a quasi saturation of over a broad temperature range, while
the resistance increase expected from the Kondo effect remains hidden by a
large background. We also measured the conductance of Aharonov-Bohm rings
fabricated using a very pure copper source and found that the amplitude of the
conductance oscillations increases strongly with magnetic field. This set
of experiments suggests that the frequently observed ``saturation'' of
in weakly disordered metallic thin films can be attributed to
spin-flip scattering from extremely dilute magnetic impurities, at a level
undetectable by other means.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, to be published in Physical Review
Probing interactions in mesoscopic gold wires
We have measured in gold wires the energy exchange rate between
quasiparticles, the phase coherence time of quasiparticles and the resistance
vs. temperature, in order to probe the interaction processes which are relevant
at low temperatures. We find that the energy exchange rate is higher than
expected from the theory of electron-electron interactions, and that it has a
different energy dependence. The dephasing time is constant at temperatures
between 8 K and 0.5 K, and it increases below 0.5 K. The magnetoresistance is
negative at large field scales, and the resistance decreases logarithmically
with increasing temperatures, indicating the presence of magnetic impurities,
probably Fe. Whereas resistivity and phase coherence measurements can be
attributed to magnetic impurities, the question is raised whether these
magnetic impurities could also mediate energy exchanges between quasiparticles.Comment: latex pothier.tex, 12 files, 15 pages in: Proceedings of the NATO
Advanced Research Workshop on Size Dependent Magnetic Scattering, Pesc,
Hungary, May 28 - June 1st, 2000 Chandrasekhar V., Van Haesendonck C. eds
(Kluwer, 2001) [SPEC-S00/083
Direct demonstration of circulating currents in a controllable -SQUID generated by a 0 to transition of the weak links
A controllable -SQUID is a DC SQUID with two controllable
-junctions as weak links. A controllable -junction consists of a
superconducting - normal metal - superconducting Josephson junction with two
additional contacts to the normal region of the junction. By applying a voltage
over these contacts it is possible to control the sate of the junction,
i.e. a conventional (0) state or a -state, depending on the magnitude of
. We demonstrate experimentally that, by putting one junction into a
-state, a screening current is generated around the SQUID loop at integer
external flux. To be able to do this, we have fabricated controllable
-junctions, based on Cu-Nb or Ag-Nb, in a new geometry. We show that at
1.4 K only the Nb-Ag device shows the transition to a -state as a function
of consistent with theoretical predictions. In a controllable SQUID
based on Nb-Ag we observe, a part from a screening current at integer external
flux, a phase shift of of the oscillations under suitable
current bias, depending on the magnitude of .Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, subm. to Phys. Rev.
Effect of Nyquist Noise on the Nyquist Dephasing Rate in 2d Electron Systems
We measure the effect of externally applied broadband Nyquist noise on the
intrinsic Nyquist dephasing rate of electrons in a two-dimensional electron gas
at low temperatures. Within the measurement error, the phase coherence time is
unaffected by the externally applied Nyquist noise, including applied noise
temperatures of up to 300 K. The amplitude of the applied Nyquist noise from
100 MHz to 10 GHz is quantitatively determined in the same experiment using a
microwave network analyzer.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Author affiliation clarified; acknowledgements
modified. Replacement reason clarifie
Geometry dependent dephasing in small metallic wires
Temperature dependent weak localization is measured in metallic nanowires in
a previously unexplored size regime down to width nm. The dephasing time,
, shows a low temperature dependence close to quasi-1D
theoretical expectations () in the narrowest wires,
but exhibits a relative saturation as for wide samples of the same
material, as observed previously. As only sample geometry is varied to exhibit
both suppression and divergence of , this finding provides a new
constraint on models of dephasing phenomena.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Inelastic Scattering Time for Conductance Fluctuations
We revisit the problem of inelastic times governing the temperature behavior
of the weak localization correction and mesoscopic fluctuations in one- and
two-dimensional systems. It is shown that, for dephasing by the electron
electron interaction, not only are those times identical but the scaling
functions are also the same.Comment: 10 pages Revtex; 5 eps files include
Magnetic field effects in energy relaxation mediated by Kondo impurities
We study the energy distribution function of quasiparticles in voltage biased
mesoscopic wires in presence of magnetic impurities and applied magnetic field.
The system is described by a Boltzmann equation where the collision integral is
determined by coupling to spin 1/2 impurities. We derive an effective coupling
to a dissipative spin system which is valid well above Kondo temperature in
equilibrium or for sufficiently smeared distribution functions in
non-equilibrium. For low magnetic field an enhancement of energy relaxation is
found whereas for larger magnetic fields the energy relaxation decreases again
meeting qualitatively the experimental findings by Anthore et al.
(cond-mat/0109297). This gives a strong indication that magnetic impurities are
in fact responsible for the enhanced energy relaxation in copper wires. The
quantitative comparison, however, shows strong deviations for energy relaxation
with small energy transfer whereas the large energy transfer regime is in
agreement with our findings.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
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