Quantum Transparency of Anderson Insulator Junctions: Statistics of Transmission Eigenvalues, Shot Noise, and Proximity Conductance

We investigate quantum transport through strongly disordered barriers, made of a material with exceptionally high resistivity that behaves as an Anderson insulator or a ``bad metal'' in the bulk, by analyzing the distribution of Landauer transmission eigenvalues for a junction where such barrier is attached to two clean metallic leads. We find that scaling of the transmission eigenvalue distribution with the junction thickness (starting from the single interface limit) always predicts a non-zero probability to find high transmission channels even in relatively thick barriers. Using this distribution, we compute the zero frequency shot noise power (as well as its sample-to-sample fluctuations) and demonstrate how it provides a single number characterization of non-trivial transmission properties of different types of disordered barriers. The appearance of open conducting channels, whose transmission eigenvalue is close to one, and corresponding violent mesoscopic fluctuations of transport quantities explain at least some of the peculiar zero-bias anomalies in the Anderson-insulator/superconductor junctions observed in recent experiments [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 61}, 13037 (2000)]. Our findings are also relevant for the understanding of the role of defects that can undermine quality of thin tunnel barriers made of conventional band-insulators.Comment: 9 pages, 8 color EPS figures; one additional figure on mesoscopic fluctuations of Fano facto

Optimizing the speed of a Josephson junction

We review the application of dynamical mean-field theory to Josephson junctions and study how to maximize the characteristic voltage IcRn which determines the width of a rapid single flux quantum pulse, and thereby the operating speed in digital electronics. We study a wide class of junctions ranging from SNS, SCmS (where Cm stands for correlated metal), SINIS (where the insulating layer is formed from a screened dipole layer), and SNSNS structures. Our review is focused on a survey of the physical results; the formalism has been developed elsewhere.Comment: (36 pages, 15 figures, to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. B

Quest for Rare Events in three-dimensional Mesoscopic Disordered Metals

The study reports on the first large statistics numerical experiment searching for rare eigenstates of anomalously high amplitudes in three-dimensional diffusive metallic conductors. Only a small fraction of a huge number of investigated eigenfunctions generates the far asymptotic tail of their amplitude distribution function. The relevance of the relationship between disorder and spectral averaging, as well as of the quantum transport properties of the investigated mesoscopic samples, for the numerical exploration of eigenstate statistics is divulged. The quest provides exact results to serve as a reference point in understanding the limits of approximations employed in different analytical predictions, and thereby the physics (quantum vs semiclassical) behind large deviations from the universal predictions of random matrix theory.Comment: 5 pages, 3 embedded EPS figures, figure 3 replaced with new findings on spectral vs disorder averagin

Spin and Charge Shot Noise in Mesoscopic Spin Hall Systems

Injection of unpolarized charge current through the longitudinal leads of a four-terminal two-dimensional electron gas with the Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and/or SO scattering off extrinsic impurities is responsible not only for the pure spin Hall current in the transverse leads, but also for random time-dependent current fluctuations. We employ the scattering approach to current-current correlations in multiterminal nanoscale conductors to analyze the shot noise of transverse pure spin Hall and zero charge current, or transverse spin current and non-zero charge Hall current, driven by unpolarized or spin-polarized longitudinal current, respectively. Since any spin-flip acts as an additional source of noise, we argue that these shot noises offer a unique tool to differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic SO mechanisms underlying the spin Hall effect in paramagnetic devices.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures (5 embedded EPS files

Boson-fermion unification, superstrings, and Bohmian mechanics

Bosonic and fermionic particle currents can be introduced in a more unified way, with the cost of introducing a preferred spacetime foliation. Such a unified treatment of bosons and fermions naturally emerges from an analogous superstring current, showing that the preferred spacetime foliation appears only at the level of effective field theory, not at the fundamental superstring level. The existence of the preferred spacetime foliation allows an objective definition of particles associated with quantum field theory in curved spacetime. Such an objective definition of particles makes the Bohmian interpretation of particle quantum mechanics more appealing. The superstring current allows a consistent Bohmian interpretation of superstrings themselves, including a Bohmian description of string creation and destruction in terms of string splitting. The Bohmian equations of motion and the corresponding probabilistic predictions are fully relativistic covariant and do not depend on the preferred foliation.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, revised, to appear in Found. Phy

Typical medium theory of Anderson localization: A local order parameter approach to strong disorder effects

We present a self-consistent theory of Anderson localization that yields a simple algorithm to obtain \emph{typical local density of states} as an order parameter, thereby reproducing the essential features of a phase-diagram of localization-delocalization quantum phase transition in the standard lattice models of disordered electron problem. Due to the local character of our theory, it can easily be combined with dynamical mean-field approaches to strongly correlated electrons, thus opening an attractive avenue for a genuine {\em non-perturbative} treatment of the interplay of strong interactions and strong disorder.Comment: 7 pages, 4 EPS figures, revised version to appear in Europhysics Letter

Per-Core DVFS with Switched-Capacitor Converters for Energy Efficiency in Manycore Processors

Integrating multiple power converters on-chip improves energy efficiency of manycore architectures. Switched-capacitor (SC) dc-dc converters are compatible with conventional CMOS processes, but traditional implementations suffer from limited conversion efficiency. We propose a dynamic voltage and frequency scaling scheme with SC converters that achieves high converter efficiency by allowing the output voltage to ripple and having the processor core frequency track the ripple. Minimum core energy is achieved by hopping between different converter modes and tuning body-bias voltages. A multicore processor model based on a 28-nm technology shows conversion efficiencies of 90% along with over 25% improvement in the overall chip energy efficiency

Dirichlet boundary conditions in type IIB superstring theory and fermionic T-duality

In this article we investigate the relation between consequences of Dirichlet boundary conditions (momenta noncommutativity and parameters of the effective theory) and background fields of fermionic T-dual theory. We impose Dirichlet boundary conditions on the endpoints of the open string propagating in background of type IIB superstring theory with constant background fields. We showed that on the solution of the boundary conditions the momenta become noncommutative, while the coordinates commute. Fermionic T-duality is also introduced and its relation to noncommutativity is considered. We use compact notation so that type IIB superstring formally gets the form of the bosonic one with Grassman variables. Then momenta noncommutativity parameters are fermionic T-dual fields. The effective theory, the initial theory on the solution of boundary conditions, is bilinear in the effective coordinates, odd under world-sheet parity transformation. The effective metric is equal to the initial one and terms with the effective Kalb-Ramond field vanish

Extrinsic Entwined with Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect in Disordered Mesoscopic Bars

We show that pure spin Hall current, flowing out of a four-terminal phase-coherent two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) within inversion asymmetric semiconductor heterostructure, contains contributions from both the extrinsic mechanisms (spin-orbit dependent scattering off impurities) and the intrinsic ones (due to the Rashba coupling). While the extrinsic contribution vanishes in the weakly and strongly disordered limits, and the intrinsic one dominates in the quasiballistic limit, in the crossover transport regime the spin Hall conductance, exhibiting sample-to-sample large fluctuations and sign change, is not simply reducible to either of the two mechanisms, which can be relevant for interpretation of experiments on dirty 2DEGs [V. Sih et al., Nature Phys. 1, 31 (2005)].Comment: 5 pages, 3 color EPS figure

Edge spin accumulation in semiconductor two-dimensional hole gases

The controlled generation of localized spin densities is a key enabler of semiconductor spintronics In this work, we study spin Hall effect induced edge spin accumulation in a two-dimensional hole gas with strong spin orbit interactions. We argue that it is an intrinsic property, in the sense that it is independent of the strength of disorder scattering. We show numerically that the spin polarization near the edge induced by this mechanism can be large, and that it becomes larger and more strongly localized as the spin-orbit coupling strength increases, and is independent of the width of the conducting strip once this exceeds the elastic scattering mean-free-path. Our experiments in two-dimensional hole gas microdevices confirm this remarkable spin Hall effect phenomenology. Achieving comparable levels of spin polarization by external magnetic fields would require laboratory equipment whose physical dimensions and operating electrical currents are million times larger than those of our spin Hall effect devices.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure