What Can We Learn from Noise? -- Mesoscopic Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics --

Mesoscopic systems -- small electric circuits working in quantum regime -- offer us a unique experimental stage to explorer quantum transport in a tunable and precise way. The purpose of this Review is to show how they can contribute to statistical physics. We introduce the significance of fluctuation, or equivalently noise, as noise measurement enables us to address the fundamental aspects of a physical system. The significance of the fluctuation theorem (FT) in statistical physics is noted. We explain what information can be deduced from the current noise measurement in mesoscopic systems. As an important application of the noise measurement to statistical physics, we describe our experimental work on the current and current noise in an electron interferometer, which is the first experimental test of FT in quantum regime. Our attempt will shed new light in the research field of mesoscopic quantum statistical physics.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Review articl

Switching magnetic vortex core by a single nanosecond current pulse

In a ferromagnetic nanodisk, the magnetization tends to swirl around in the plane of the disk and can point either up or down at the center of this magnetic vortex. This binary state can be useful for information storage. It is demonstrated that a single nanosecond current pulse can switch the core polarity. This method also provides the precise control of the core direction, which constitutes fundamental technology for realizing a vortex core memory.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Fano Resonance in a Quantum Wire with a Side-coupled Quantum Dot

We report a transport experiment on the Fano effect in a quantum connecting wire (QW) with a side-coupled quantum dot (QD). The Fano resonance occurs between the QD and the "T-shaped" junction in the wire, and the transport detects anti-resonance or forward scattered part of the wavefunction. While in this geometry it is more difficult to tune the shape of the resonance than in the previously reported Aharonov-Bohm-ring type interferometer, the resonance purely consists of the coherent part of transport. By utilizing this advantage, we have qualitatively explained the temperature dependence of the Fano effect by including the thermal broadening and the decoherence. We have also proven that this geometry can be a useful interferometer to measure the phase evolution of electrons at a QD.Comment: REVTEX, 6 pages including 5 figures, final versio

Current-driven resonant excitation of magnetic vortex

A magnetic vortex core in a ferromagnetic circular nanodot has a resonance frequency originating from the confinement of the vortex core. By the micromagnetic simulation including the spin-transfer torque, we show that the vortex core can be resonantly excited by an AC (spin-polarized) current through the dot and that the resonance frequency can be tuned by the dot shape. The resistance measurement under the AC current successfully detects the resonance at the frequency consistent with the simulation.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy quantum sensors in hexagonal boron nitride

Recently, there has been growing interest in researching the use of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) for quantum technologies. Here we investigate nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy (V$_\text{B}$) defects, one of the candidates for quantum sensors, in $^{15}$N isotopically enriched hBN synthesized using metathesis reaction. The Raman shifts are scaled with the reduced mass, consistent with previous work on boron isotope enrichment. We obtain nitrogen isotopic composition dependent optically detected magnetic resonance spectra of V$_\text{B}$ defects and determine the hyperfine interaction parameter of $^{15}$N spin to be -64 MHz. Our investigation provides a design policy for hBNs for quantum technologies

Optical-power-dependent splitting of magnetic resonance in nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds are a powerful tool for accurate magnetic field measurements. The key is precisely estimating the field-dependent splitting width of the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectra of the NV centers. In this study, we investigate the optical power dependence of the ODMR spectra using NV ensemble in nanodiamonds (NDs) and a single-crystal bulk diamond. We find that the splitting width exponentially decays and is saturated as the optical power increases. Comparison between NDs and a bulk sample shows that while the decay amplitude is sample-dependent, the optical power at which the decay saturates is almost sample-independent. We propose that this unexpected phenomenon is an intrinsic property of the NV center due to non-axisymmetry deformation or impurities. Our finding indicates that diamonds with less deformation are advantageous for accurate magnetic field measurements.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Observation of the Fano-Kondo Anti-Resonance in a Quantum Wire with a Side-Coupled Quantum Dot

We have observed the Fano-Kondo anti-resonance in a quantum wire with a side-coupled quantum dot. In a weak coupling regime, dips due to the Fano effect appeared. As the coupling strength increased, conductance in the regions between the dips decreased alternately. From the temperature dependence and the response to the magnetic field, we conclude that the conductance reduction is due to the Fano-Kondo anti-resonance. At a Kondo valley with the Fano parameter $q\approx 0$, the phase shift is locked to $\pi/2$ against the gate voltage when the system is close to the unitary limit in agreement with theoretical predictions by Gerland {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 84}, 3710 (2000)].Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure