200 research outputs found
Quantum Friction of Micromechanical Resonators at Low Temperatures
Dissipation of micro- and nano-scale mechanical structures is dominated by
quantum-mechanical tunneling of two-level defects intrinsically present in the
system. We find that at high frequencies--usually, for smaller, micron-scale
structures--a novel mechanism of phonon pumping of two-level defects gives rise
to weakly temperature-dependent internal friction, , concomitant to the
effects observed in recent experiments. Due to their size, comparable to or
shorter than the emitted phonon wavelength, these structures suffer from
superradiance-enhanced dissipation by the collective relaxation of a large
number of two-level defects contained within the wavelength.Comment: To apear in Phys. Rev. Let
Nonlinear acoustic and microwave absorption in disordered semiconductors
Nonlinear hopping absorption of ultrasound and electromagnetic waves in
amorphous and doped semiconductors is considered. It is shown that even at low
amplitudes of the electric (or acoustic) field the nonlinear corrections to the
relaxational absorption appear anomalously large. The physical reason for such
behavior is that the nonlinear contribution is dominated by a small group of
close impurity pairs having one electron per pair. Since the group is small, it
is strongly influenced by the field. An external magnetic field strongly
influences the absorption by changing the overlap between the pair components'
wave functions. It is important that the influence is substantially different
for the linear and nonlinear contributions. This property provides an
additional tool to extract nonlinear effects.Comment: correction : misspelled name in references correcte
Nonlinear acoustic and microwave absorption in glasses
A theory of weakly-nonlinear low-temperature relaxational absorption of
acoustic and electromagnetic waves in dielectric and metallic glasses is
developed. Basing upon the model of two-level tunneling systems we show that
the nonlinear contribution to the absorption can be anomalously large. This is
the case at low enough frequencies, where freqeuency times the minimal
relaxation time for the two-level system are much less than one. In dielectric
glasses, the lowest-order nonlinear contribution is proportional to the wave's
intensity. It is negative and exhibits anomalous frequency and temperature
dependencies. In metallic glasses, the nonlinear contribution is also negative,
and it is proportional to the square root of the wave's intensity and to the
frequency. Numerical estimates show that the predicted nonlinear contribution
can be measured experimentally
Temperature square dependence of the low frequency 1/f charge noise in the Josephson junction qubits
To verify the hypothesis about the common origin of the low frequency 1/f
noise and the quantum f noise recently measured in the Josephson charge qubits,
we study temperature dependence of the 1/f noise and decay of coherent
oscillations. T^2 dependence of the 1/f noise is experimentally demonstrated,
which supports the hypothesis. We also show that dephasing in the Josephson
charge qubits off the electrostatic energy degeneracy point is consistently
explained by the same low frequency 1/f noise that is observed in the transport
measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Exact analytical solution of the problem of current-carrying states of the Josephson junction in external magnetic fields
The classical problem of the Josephson junction of arbitrary length W in the
presence of externally applied magnetic fields (H) and transport currents (J)
is reconsidered from the point of view of stability theory. In particular, we
derive the complete infinite set of exact analytical solutions for the phase
difference that describe the current-carrying states of the junction with
arbitrary W and an arbitrary mode of the injection of J. These solutions are
parameterized by two natural parameters: the constants of integration. The
boundaries of their stability regions in the parametric plane are determined by
a corresponding infinite set of exact functional equations. Being mapped to the
physical plane (H,J), these boundaries yield the dependence of the critical
transport current Jc on H. Contrary to a wide-spread belief, the exact
analytical dependence Jc=Jc(H) proves to be multivalued even for arbitrarily
small W. What is more, the exact solution reveals the existence of unquantized
Josephson vortices carrying fractional flux and located near one of the
junction edges, provided that J is sufficiently close to Jc for certain finite
values of H. This conclusion (as well as other exact analytical results) is
illustrated by a graphical analysis of typical cases.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Decoherence dynamics of a qubit coupled to a quantum two-level system
We study the decoherence dynamics of a qubit coupled to a quantum two-level
system (TLS) in addition to its weak coupling to a background environment. We
analyze the different regimes of behaviour that arise as the values of the
different parameters are varied. We classify those regimes as two weak-coupling
regimes, which differ by the relation between the qubit and TLS decoherence
times, and a strong-coupling one. We also find analytic expressions describing
the decoherence rates in the weak-coupling regimes, and we verify numerically
that those expressions have a rather wide range of validity. Along with
obtaining the above-mentioned results, we address the questions of qubit-TLS
entanglement and the additivity of multiple TLS contributions. We also discuss
the transition from weak to strong coupling as the parameters are varied, and
we numerically determine the location of the boundary between the two regimes.Comment: 9 pages (two-column), 3 figure
Static Solitons of the Sine-Gordon Equation and Equilibrium Vortex Structure in Josephson Junctions
The problem of vortex structure in a single Josephson junction in an external
magnetic field, in the absence of transport currents, is reconsidered from a
new mathematical point of view. In particular, we derive a complete set of
exact analytical solutions representing all the stationary points (minima and
saddle-points) of the relevant Gibbs free-energy functional. The type of these
solutions is determined by explicit evaluation of the second variation of the
Gibbs free-energy functional. The stable (physical) solutions minimizing the
Gibbs free-energy functional form an infinite set and are labelled by a
topological number Nv=0,1,2,... Mathematically, they can be interpreted as
nontrivial ''vacuum'' (Nv=0) and static topological solitons (Nv=1,2,...) of
the sine-Gordon equation for the phase difference in a finite spatial interval:
solutions of this kind were not considered in previous literature. Physically,
they represent the Meissner state (Nv=0) and Josephson vortices (Nv=1,2,...).
Major properties of the new physical solutions are thoroughly discussed. An
exact, closed-form analytical expression for the Gibbs free energy is derived
and analyzed numerically. Unstable (saddle-point) solutions are also classified
and discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 4 Postscript figure
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