Self-excited Oscillations of Charge-Spin Accumulation Due to Single-electron Tunneling

We theoretically study electronic transport through a layer of quantum dots connecting two metallic leads. By the inclusion of an inductor in series with the junction, we show that steady electronic transport in such a system may be unstable with respect to temporal oscillations caused by an interplay between the Coulomb blockade of tunneling and spin accumulation in the dots. When this instability occurs, a new stable regime is reached, where the average spin and charge in the dots oscillate periodically in time. The frequency of these oscillations is typically of the order of 1GHz for realistic values of the junction parameters

Cooling of a suspended nanowire by an AC Josephson current flow

We consider a nanoelectromechanical Josephson junction, where a suspended nanowire serves as a superconducting weak link, and show that an applied DC bias voltage an result in suppression of the flexural vibrations of the wire. This cooling effect is achieved through the transfer of vibronic energy quanta first to voltage driven Andreev states and then to extended quasiparticle electronic states. Our analysis, which is performed for a nanowire in the form of a metallic carbon nanotube and in the framework of the density matrix formalism, shows that such self-cooling is possible down to a level where the average occupation number of the lowest flexural vibration mode of the nanowire is $\sim 0.1$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Voltage-driven superconducting weak link as a refrigerator for cooling of nanomechanical vibrations

We consider a new type of cooling mechanism for a suspended nanowire acting as a weak link between two superconductive electrodes. By applying a bias voltage over the system, we show that the system can be viewed as a refrigerator for the nanomechanical vibrations, where energy is continuously transferred from the vibrational degrees of freedom to the extended quasiparticle states in the leads through the periodic modulation of the inter-Andreev level separation. The necessary coupling between the electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom responsible for this energy-transfer can be achieved both with an external magnetic or electrical field, and is shown to lead to an effective cooling of the vibrating nanowire. Using realistic parameters for a suspended nanowire in the form of a metallic carbon nanotube we analyze the evolution of the density matrix and demonstrate the possibility to cool the system down to a stationary vibron population of $\sim 0.1$. Furthermore, it is shown that the stationary occupancy of the vibrational modes of the nanowire can be directly probed from the DC current responsible for carrying away the absorbed energy from the vibrating nanowire.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Spintromechanics of a Magnetic Nanoshuttle

We investigate theoretically the prospects for using a magnetic nanoelectromechanical single-electron tunneling (NEM-SET) device as an electronic spin filter. We find that strong magnetic exchange forces on the net spin of the mobile central dot of the NEM-SET structure lead to spin-dependent mechanical displacements ("spin polarons"), which give rise to vastly different tunnelling probabilities for electrons of different spin. The resulting spin polarization of the current can be controlled by bias and gate voltages and be very close to 100% at voltages and temperatures below a characteristic correlation energy set by the sum of the polaronic and Coulomb blockade energies.Comment: Accepted for publication as a Rapid Communication in Phys. Rev. B and selected as an "Editors' Suggestion" paper. This version has minor modifications compared to arXiv:1205.2979, which it replace

Superconductive pumping of nanomechanical vibrations

We demonstrate that a supercurrent can pump energy from a battery that provides a voltage bias into nanomechanical vibrations. Using a device containing a nanowire Josephson weak link as an example we show that a nonlinear coupling between the supercurrent and a static external magnetic field leads to a Lorentz force that excites bending vibrations of the wire at resonance conditions. We also demonstrate the possibility to achieve more than one regime of stationary nonlinear vibrations and how to detect them via the associated dc Josephson currents and we discuss possible applications of such a multistable nanoelectromechanical dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Single-electron shuttle based on electron spin

A nanoelectromechanical device based on magnetic exchange forces and electron spin flips induced by a weak external magnetic field is suggested. It is shown that this device can operate as a new type of single-electron "shuttle" in the Coulomb blockade regime of electron transport

Sub-Wavelength Terahertz Spin-Flip Laser Based on a Magnetic Point-Contact Array

We present a novel design for a single-mode, truly sub-wavelength THz disk laser based on a nano-composite gain medium comprising an array of metal/ferromagnetic point contacts embedded in a thin dielectric layer. Stimulated emission of light occurs in the point contacts as a result of spin-flip relaxation of spin-polarized electrons that are injected from the ferromagnetic side of the contacts. Ultra-high electrical current densities in the contacts and a dielectric material with a large refractive index, neither condition being achievable in conventional semiconductor media, allows the thresholds of lasing to be overcome for the lowest-order modes of the disk, hence making single-mode operation possible.Comment: 9 pages,4 figure

Coulomb-promoted spintromechanics in magnetic shuttle devices

Exchange forces on the movable dot ("shuttle") in a magnetic shuttle device depend on the parity of the number of shuttling electrons. The performance of such a device can therefore be tuned by changing the strength $U$ of Coulomb correlations to block or unblock parity fluctuations. We show that by increasing $U$ the spintro-mechanics of the device crosses over, at $U=U_c(T)$, from a mechanically stable regime to a regime of spin-induced shuttle instabilities. This is due to enhanced spin-dependent mechanical forces as parity fluctuations are reduced by a Coulomb blockade of tunneling and demonstrates that single-electron manipulation of single-spin controlled nano-mechanics is possible.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures and a supplementary information fil