62 research outputs found
Magnetic switching by spin torque from the spin Hall effect
The spin Hall effect (SHE) generates spin currents within nonmagnetic
materials. Previously, studies of the SHE have been motivated primarily to
understand its fundamental origin and magnitude. Here we demonstrate, using
measurement and modeling, that in a Pt/Co bilayer with perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy the SHE can produce a spin transfer torque that is strong enough to
efficiently rotate and reversibly switch the Co magnetization, thereby
providing a new strategy both to understand the SHE and to manipulate magnets.
We suggest that the SHE torque can have a similarly strong influence on
current-driven magnetic domain wall motion in Pt/ferromagnet multilayers. We
estimate that in optimized devices the SHE torque can switch magnetic moments
using currents comparable to those in magnetic tunnel junctions operated by
conventional spin-torque switching, meaning that the SHE can enable magnetic
memory and logic devices with similar performance but simpler architecture than
the current state of the art
Coherence and Decay of Higher Energy Levels of a Superconducting Transmon Qubit
We present measurements of coherence and successive decay dynamics of higher energy levels of a superconducting transmon qubit. By applying consecutive Ļ pulses for each sequential transition frequency, we excite the qubit from the ground state up to its fourth excited level and characterize the decay and coherence of each state. We find the decay to proceed mainly sequentially, with relaxation times in excess of 20āāĪ¼s for all transitions. We also provide a direct measurement of the charge dispersion of these levels by analyzing beating patterns in Ramsey fringes. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using higher levels in transmon qubits for encoding quantum information.United States. Dept. of Defense. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002)United States. Army Research Office (Contract W911NF-14-1-0078)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-1415514)Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci
A Blind Search for Magnetospheric Emissions from Planetary Companions to Nearby Solar-type Stars
This paper reports a blind search for magnetospheric emissions from planets
around nearby stars. Young stars are likely to have much stronger stellar winds
than the Sun, and because planetary magnetospheric emissions are powered by
stellar winds, stronger stellar winds may enhance the radio luminosity of any
orbiting planets. Using various stellar catalogs, we selected nearby stars (<~
30 pc) with relatively young age estimates (< 3 Gyr). We constructed different
samples from the stellar catalogs, finding between 100 and several hundred
stars. We stacked images from the 74-MHz (4-m wavelength) VLA Low-frequency Sky
Survey (VLSS), obtaining 3\sigma limits on planetary emission in the stacked
images of between 10 and 33 mJy. These flux density limits correspond to
average planetary luminosities less than 5--10 x 10^{23} erg/s. Using recent
models for the scaling of stellar wind velocity, density, and magnetic field
with stellar age, we estimate scaling factors for the strength of stellar
winds, relative to the Sun, in our samples. The typical kinetic energy carried
by the stellar winds in our samples is 15--50 times larger than that of the
Sun, and the typical magnetic energy is 5--10 times larger. If we assume that
every star is orbited by a Jupiter-like planet with a luminosity larger than
that of the Jovian decametric radiation by the above factors, our limits on
planetary luminosities from the stacking analysis are likely to be a factor of
10--100 above what would be required to detect the planets in a statistical
sense. Similar statistical analyses with observations by future instruments,
such as the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and the Long Wavelength Array (LWA),
offer the promise of improvements by factors of 10--100.Comment: 11 pages; AASTeX; accepted for publication in A
Large-area NbN superconducting nanowire avalanche photon detectors with saturated detection efficiency
Superconducting circuits comprising SNSPDs placed in parallelāsuperconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors, or SNAPsāhave previously been demonstrated to improve the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by increasing the critical current. In this work, we employ a 2-SNAP superconducting circuit with narrow (40 nm) niobium nitride (NbN) nanowires to improve the system detection efficiency to near-IR photons while maintaining high SNR. Additionally, while previous 2-SNAP demonstrations have added external choke inductance to stabilize the avalanching photocurrent, we show that the external inductance can be entirely folded into the active area by cascading 2-SNAP devices in series to produce a greatly increased active area. We fabricated series-2-SNAP (s2-SNAP) circuits with a nanowire length of 20 Ī¼m with cascades of 2-SNAPs providing the choke inductance necessary for SNAP operation. We observed that (1) the detection efficiency saturated at high bias currents, and (2) the 40 nm 2-SNAP circuit critical current was approximately twice that for a 40 nm non-SNAP configuration.United States. Dept. of Defense. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (United States. Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002
Thermal and Residual Excited-State Population in a 3D Transmon Qubit
Remarkable advancements in coherence and control fidelity have been achieved in recent years with cryogenic solid-state qubits. Nonetheless, thermalizing such devices to their milliKelvin environments has remained a long-standing fundamental and technical challenge. In this context, we present a systematic study of the first-excited-state population in a 3D transmon superconducting qubit mounted in a dilution refrigerator with a variable temperature. Using a modified version of the protocol developed by Geerlings etĀ al., we observe the excited-state population to be consistent with a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, i.e., a qubit in thermal equilibrium with the refrigerator, over the temperature range 35ā150Ā mK. Below 35Ā mK, the excited-state population saturates at approximately 0.1%. We verified this result using a flux qubit with ten times stronger coupling to its readout resonator. We conclude that these qubits have effective temperature T_{eff}=35āāmK. Assuming T[subscript eff] is due solely to hot quasiparticles, the inferred qubit lifetime is 108āāĪ¼s and in plausible agreement with the measured 80āāĪ¼s.United States. Dept. of Defense. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (United States. Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002)United States. Army Research Office (Grant W911NF-14-1-0078)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-1415514
The flux qubit revisited to enhance coherence and reproducibility
The scalable application of quantum information science will stand on reproducible and controllable high-coherence quantum bits (qubits). Here, we revisit the design and fabrication of the superconducting flux qubit, achieving a planar device with broad-frequency tunability, strong anharmonicity, high reproducibility and relaxation times in excess of 40āĪ¼s at its flux-insensitive point. Qubit relaxation times Tā across 22 qubits are consistently matched with a single model involving resonator loss, ohmic charge noise and 1/f-flux noise, a noise source previously considered primarily in the context of dephasing. We furthermore demonstrate that qubit dephasing at the flux-insensitive point is dominated by residual thermal-photons in the readout resonator. The resulting photon shot noise is mitigated using a dynamical decoupling protocol, resulting in Tāā85āĪ¼s, approximately the 2Tā limit. In addition to realizing an improved flux qubit, our results uniquely identify photon shot noise as limiting Tā in contemporary qubits based on transverse qubitāresonator interaction
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