157 research outputs found

    Flux-vector model of spin noise in superconducting circuits: Electron versus nuclear spins and role of phase transition

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    Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) and other superconducting circuits are limited by intrinsic flux noise with spectral density 1/fα1/f^{\alpha} with α<1\alpha<1 whose origin is believed to be due to spin impurities. Here we present a theory of flux noise that takes into account the vectorial nature of the coupling of spins to superconducting wires. We present explicit numerical calculations of the flux noise power (spectral density integrated over all frequencies) for electron impurities and lattice nuclear spins under several different assumptions. The noise power is shown to be dominated by surface electron spins near the wire edges, with bulk lattice nuclear spins contributing ∼5\sim 5% of the noise power in aluminum and niobium wires. We consider the role of electron spin phase transitions, showing that the spin-spin correlation length (describing e.g. the average size of ferromagnetic spin clusters) greatly impacts the scaling of flux noise with wire geometry. Remarkably, flux noise power is exactly equal to zero when the spins are polarized along the flux vector direction, forming what we call a poloidal state. Flux noise is non-zero for other spin textures, but gets reduced in the presence of correlated ferromagnetic fluctuations between the top and bottom wire surfaces, where the flux vectors are antiparallel. This demonstrates that engineering spin textures and/or inter-surface correlation provides a method to reduce flux noise in superconducting devices.Comment: New version accepted in PRB. Contains new discussion about the poloidal stat

    Effect of an inhomogeneous external magnetic field on a quantum dot quantum computer

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    We calculate the effect of an inhomogeneous magnetic field, which is invariably present in an experimental environment, on the exchange energy of a double quantum dot artificial molecule, projected to be used as a 2-qubit quantum gate in the proposed quantum dot quantum computer. We use two different theoretical methods to calculate the Hilbert space structure in the presence of the inhomogeneous field: the Heitler-London method which is carried out analytically and the molecular orbital method which is done computationally. Within these approximations we show that the exchange energy J changes slowly when the coupled dots are subject to a magnetic field with a wide range of inhomogeneity, suggesting swap operations can be performed in such an environment as long as quantum error correction is applied to account for the Zeeman term. We also point out the quantum interference nature of this slow variation in exchange.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures embedded in tex

    Dangling-bond spin relaxation and magnetic 1/f noise from the amorphous-semiconductor/oxide interface: Theory

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    We propose a model for magnetic noise based on spin-flips (not electron-trapping) of paramagnetic dangling-bonds at the amorphous-semiconductor/oxide interface. A wide distribution of spin-flip times is derived from the single-phonon cross-relaxation mechanism for a dangling-bond interacting with the tunneling two-level systems of the amorphous interface. The temperature and frequency dependence is sensitive to three energy scales: The dangling-bond spin Zeeman energy delta, as well as the minimum (E_min) and maximum (E_max) values for the energy splittings of the tunneling two-level systems. We compare and fit our model parameters to a recent experiment probing spin coherence of antimony donors implanted in nuclear-spin-free silicon [T. Schenkel {\it et al.}, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 112101 (2006)], and conclude that a dangling-bond area density of the order of 10^{14}cm^{-2} is consistent with the data. This enables the prediction of single spin qubit coherence times as a function of the distance from the interface and the dangling-bond area density in a real device structure. We apply our theory to calculations of magnetic flux noise affecting SQUID devices due to their Si/SiO_2 substrate. Our explicit estimates of flux noise in SQUIDs lead to a noise spectral density of the order of 10^{-12}Phi_{0}^{2} {Hz}^{-1} at f=1Hz. This value might explain the origin of flux noise in some SQUID devices. Finally, we consider the suppression of these effects using surface passivation with hydrogen, and the residual nuclear-spin noise resulting from a perfect silicon-hydride surface.Comment: Final published versio

    Electrical control of magnon propagation in multiferroic BiFeO3 films

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    The spin wave spectra of multiferroic BiFeO3 films is calculated using a phenomenological Landau theory that includes magnetostatic effects. The lowest frequency magnon dispersion is shown to be quite sensitive to the angle between spin wave propagation vector and the Neel moment. Since electrical switching of the Neel moment has recently been demonstrated in this material, the sensitivity of the magnon dispersion permits direct electrical switching of spin wave propagation. This effect can be used to construct spin wave logical gates without current pulses, potentially allowing reduced power dissipation per logical operation

    Comment on "Ferroelectrically Induced Weak Ferromagnetism by Design", C. Fennie, PRL 100, 167203 (2008)

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    The question of how ferroelectric polarization is coupled to magnetism in magnetoelectric multiferroics, in which both types of order are simultaneously present, is of considerable scientific and practical interest. A recent Letter \cite{fennie} presents an analysis of the important ``ABO3_3'' class of perovskite multiferroics. This Letter argues that antiferromagnetic multiferroics with magnetic ions on the B site, such as the well-studied room-temperature multiferroic bismuth ferrite (A=Bi, B=Fe), cannot show linear magnetoelectric coupling of the form P⋅(L×M){\bf P} \cdot ({\bf L} \times {\bf M}). Here P{\bf P} is polarization and L{\bf L} and M{\bf M} are antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic moments. The conclusion of Ref. \onlinecite{fennie} is that only materials with magnetic A-site have this coupling. This Comment presents a compact analysis of magnetoelectric coupling in the ABO3_3 multiferroics. We show that the argument of Ref. \onlinecite{fennie} does forbid EPLME_{PLM} if the final low-symmetry phase contains only one distortion that, like P{\bf P}, breaks all inversion symmetries. In reality, there are multiple distortions in this symmetry class, and cross-terms generate EPLME_{PLM}. Our analysis gives simple conclusions about existence and optimization of magnetoelectric coupling in ABO3_3 materials.Comment: Published version (4 pages, including supplementary information
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