6,757 research outputs found
Statistics of voltage fluctuations in resistively shunted Josephson junctions
The intrinsic nonlinearity of Josephson junctions converts Gaussian current
noise in the input into non-Gaussian voltage noise in the output. For a
resistively shunted Josephson junction with white input noise we determine
numerically exactly the properties of the few lowest cumulants of the voltage
fluctuations, and we derive analytical expressions for these cumulants in
several important limits. The statistics of the voltage fluctuations is found
to be Gaussian at bias currents well above the Josephson critical current, but
Poissonian at currents below the critical value. In the transition region close
to the critical current the higher-order cumulants oscillate and the voltage
noise is strongly non-Gaussian. For coloured input noise we determine the third
cumulant of the voltage.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Quantal Brownian Motion - Dephasing and Dissipation
We analyze quantal Brownian motion in dimensions using the unified model
for diffusion localization and dissipation, and Feynman-Vernon formalism. At
high temperatures the propagator possess a Markovian property and we can write
down an equivalent Master equation. Unlike the case of the
Zwanzig-Caldeira-Leggett model, genuine quantum mechanical effects manifest
themselves due to the disordered nature of the environment. Using Wigner
picture of the dynamics we distinguish between two different mechanisms for
destruction of coherence. The analysis of dephasing is extended to the low
temperature regime by using a semiclassical strategy. Various results are
derived for ballistic, chaotic, diffusive, both ergodic and non-ergodic motion.
We also analyze loss of coherence at the limit of zero temperature and clarify
the limitations of the semiclassical approach. The condition for having
coherent effect due to scattering by low-frequency fluctuations is also pointed
out. It is interesting that the dephasing rate can be either larger or smaller
than the dissipation rate, depending on the physical circumstances.Comment: LaTex, 23 pages, 4 figures, published vesio
Irreversibility on the Level of Single-Electron Tunneling
We present a low-temperature experimental test of the fluctuation theorem for
electron transport through a double quantum dot. The rare entropy-consuming
system trajectories are detected in the form of single charges flowing against
the source-drain bias by using time-resolved charge detection with a quantum
point contact. We find that these trajectories appear with a frequency that
agrees with the theoretical predictions even under strong nonequilibrium
conditions, when the finite bandwidth of the charge detection is taken into
account
Electron transport through interacting quantum dots
We present a detailed theoretical investigation of the effect of Coulomb
interactions on electron transport through quantum dots and double barrier
structures connected to a voltage source via an arbitrary linear impedance.
Combining real time path integral techniques with the scattering matrix
approach we derive the effective action and evaluate the current-voltage
characteristics of quantum dots at sufficiently large conductances. Our
analysis reveals a reach variety of different regimes which we specify in
details for the case of chaotic quantum dots. At sufficiently low energies the
interaction correction to the current depends logarithmically on temperature
and voltage. We identify two different logarithmic regimes with the crossover
between them occurring at energies of order of the inverse dwell time of
electrons in the dot. We also analyze the frequency-dependent shot noise in
chaotic quantum dots and elucidate its direct relation to interaction effects
in mesoscopic electron transport.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. References added, discussion slightly extende
Minimax estimation of the Wigner function in quantum homodyne tomography with ideal detectors
We estimate the quantum state of a light beam from results of quantum
homodyne measurements performed on identically prepared pulses. The state is
represented through the Wigner function, a ``quasi-probability density'' on
which may take negative values and must respect intrinsic
positivity constraints imposed by quantum physics. The data consists of
i.i.d. observations from a probability density equal to the Radon transform of
the Wigner function. We construct an estimator for the Wigner function, and
prove that it is minimax efficient for the pointwise risk over a class of
infinitely differentiable functions. A similar result was previously derived by
Cavalier in the context of positron emission tomography. Our work extends this
result to the space of smooth Wigner functions, which is the relevant parameter
space for quantum homodyne tomography.Comment: 15 page
Effect of annealing on electron dephasing in three-dimensional polycrystalline metals
We have studied the effect of thermal annealing on electron dephasing times
in three-dimensional polycrystalline metals. Measurements are
performed on as-sputtered and annealed AuPd and Sb thick films, using
weak-localization method. In all samples, we find that possesses an
extremely weak temperature dependence as . Our results show that the
effect of annealing is non-universal, and it depends strongly on the amount of
disorder quenched in the microstructures during deposition. The observed
"saturation" behavior of cannot be easily explained by magnetic
scattering. We suggest that the issue of saturation can be better addressed in
three-dimensional, rather than lower-dimensional, structures
Specific heat of MgB in a one- and a two-band model from first-principles calculations
The heat capacity anomaly at the transition to superconductivity of the
layered superconductor MgB is compared to first-principles calculations
with the Coulomb repulsion, , as the only parameter which is fixed to
give the measured . We solve the Eliashberg equations for both an
isotropic one-band and a two-band model with different superconducting gaps on
the and Fermi surfaces. The agreement with experiments is
considerably better for the two-band model than for the one-band model.Comment: final published versio
Nonequilibrium Electron Distribution in Presence of Kondo Impurities
We study the energy relaxation of quasiparticles in voltage biased mesoscopic
wires in presence of magnetic impurities. The renormalization of the exchange
interaction of Kondo impurities coupled to conduction electrons is extended to
the case of a nonequilibrium electron distribution, which is determined
self-consistently from a Boltzmann equation with a collision term due to Kondo
impurity mediated electron-electron scattering. The approach leads to
predictions in quantitative agreement with recent experiments by Pothier et al.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 3490 (1997)].Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Cotunneling at resonance for the single-electron transistor
We study electron transport through a small metallic island in the
perturbative regime. Using a recently developed diagrammatic technique, we
calculate the occupation of the island as well as the conductance through the
transistor in forth order in the tunneling matrix elements, a process referred
to as cotunneling. Our formulation does not require the introduction of a
cut-off. At resonance we find significant modifications of previous theories
and good agreement with recent experiments.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 5 eps-figure
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