161 research outputs found
Energy Spectrum and Exact Cover in an Extended Quantum Ising Model
We investigate an extended version of the quantum Ising model which includes
beyond-nearest neighbour interactions and an additional site-dependent
longitudinal magnetic field. Treating the interaction exactly and using
perturbation theory in the longitudinal field, we calculate the energy spectrum
and find that the presence of beyond-nearest-neighbour interactions enhances
the minimal gap between the ground state and the first excited state,
irrespective of the nature of decay of these interactions along the chain. The
longitudinal field adds a correction to this gap that is independent of the
number of qubits. We discuss the application of our model to implementing
specific instances of 3-satisfiability problems (Exact Cover) and make a
connection to a chain of flux qubits.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, published versio
Resonant multiple Andreev reflections in mesoscopic superconducting junctions
We investigate the properties of subharmonic gap structure (SGS) in
superconducting quantum contacts with normal-electron resonances. We find two
distinct new features of the SGS in resonant junctions which distinguish them
from non-resonant point contacts: (i) The odd-order structures on the
current-voltage characteristics of resonant junctions are strongly enhanced and
have pronounced peaks, while the even-order structures are suppressed, in the
case of a normal electron resonance being close to the Fermi level. (ii)
Tremendous current peaks develop at where indicates a
distance of the resonance to the Fermi level. These properties are determined
by the effect of narrowing of the resonance during multiple Andreev reflections
and by overlap of electron and hole resonances.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Suppression and enhancement of the critical current in multiterminal S/N/S mesoscopic structures
We analyse the measured critical current in a mesoscopic
4-terminal S/N/S structure. The current through the S/N interface is shown to
consist not only of the Josephson component but also a
phase-coherent part of the subgap current. The current
is determined by the both components and and depends
in a nonmonotonic way on the voltage between superconductors and normal
reservoirs reaching a maximum at . The obtained theoretical
resultas are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental data.Comment: 4 page, 3 figures. To be puplished in PRB Rapid co
Quantum dynamics of a driven three-level Josephson-atom maser
Recently, a lasing effect has been observed in a superconducting nano-circuit
where a Cooper pair box, acting as an artificial three-level atom, was coupled
to a resonator. Motivated by this experiment, we analyze the quantum dynamics
of a three-level atom coupled to a quantum-mechanical resonator in the presence
of a driving on the cavity within the framework of the Lindblad master
equation. As a result, we have access to the dynamics of the atomic level
populations and the photon number in the cavity as well as to the output
spectrum. The results of our quantum approach agree with the experimental
findings. The presence of a fluctuator in the circuit is also analyzed.
Finally, we compare our results with those obtained within a semiclassical
approximation.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Single-artificial-atom lasing using a voltage-biased superconducting charge qubit
We consider a system composed of a single artificial atom coupled to a cavity
mode. The artificial atom is biased such that the most dominant relaxation
process in the system takes the atom from its ground state to its excited
state, thus ensuring population inversion. A recent experimental manifestation
of this situation was achieved using a voltage-biased superconducting charge
qubit. Even under the condition of `inverted relaxation', lasing action can be
suppressed if the `relaxation' rate is larger than a certain threshold value.
Using simple transition-rate arguments and a semiclassical calculation, we
derive analytic expressions for the lasing suppression condition and the state
of the cavity in both the lasing and suppressed-lasing regimes. The results of
numerical calculations agree very well with the analytically derived results.
We start by analyzing a simplified two-level-atom model, and we then analyze a
three-level-atom model that should describe accurately the recently realized
superconducting artificial-atom laser.Comment: 21 pages in preprint format, 6 figure
Nonequilibrium Josephson effect in mesoscopic ballistic multiterminal SNS junctions
We present a detailed study of nonequilibrium Josephson currents and
conductance in ballistic multiterminal SNS-devices. Nonequilibrium is created
by means of quasiparticle injection from a normal reservoir connected to the
normal part of the junction. By applying a voltage at the normal reservoir the
Josephson current can be suppressed or the direction of the current can be
reversed. For a junction longer than the thermal length, , the
nonequilibrium current increases linearly with applied voltage, saturating at a
value equal to the equilibrium current of a short junction. The conductance
exhibits a finite bias anomaly around . For symmetric
injection, the conductance oscillates -periodically with the phase
difference between the superconductors, with position of the minimum
( or ) dependent on applied voltage and temperature. For
asymmetric injection, both the nonequilibrium Josephson current and the
conductance becomes -periodic in phase difference. Inclusion of barriers
at the NS-interfaces gives rise to a resonant behavior of the total Josephson
current with respect to junction length with a period . Both
three and four terminal junctions are studied.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Decoherence, Autler-Townes effect, and dark states in two-tone driving of a three-level superconducting system
We present a detailed theoretical analysis of a multi-level quantum system
coupled to two radiation fields and subject to decoherence. We concentrate on
an effect known from quantum optics as the Autler-Townes splitting, which has
been recently demonstrated experimentally [M. A. Sillanpaa et al., Phys. Rev.
Lett. 103, 193601 (2009)] in a superconducting phase qubit. In the three-level
approximation, we derive analytical solutions and describe how they can be used
to extract the decoherence rates and to account for the measurement data.
Better agreement with the experiment can be obtained by extending this model to
five levels. Finally, we investigate the stationary states created in the
experiment and show that their structure is close to that of dark states.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Excess Noise in Biased Superconducting Weak Links
Non-equilibrium excess noise of a short quasi one-dimensional constriction
between two superconductors is considered. A general expression for the
current-current correlation function valid for arbitrary temperatures and bias
voltages is derived. This formalism is applied to a current-carrying quantum
channel with perfect transparency. Contrary to a transparent channel separating
two normal conductors, a weak link between two superconductors exhibits a
finite level of noise. The source of noise is fractional Andreev scattering of
quasiparticles with energies greater than the half-width of the
superconducting gap. For high bias voltages, , the relation
between the zero-frequency limit of the noise spectrum, , and the excess
current reads . As both the excess noise and the excess current vanish linearly in
, %, their ratio being constant.Comment: 8 pages (Latex), 1 figur
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