38 research outputs found
Free Wave Propagation in Plates of General Anisotropic Media
The propagation of Lamb waves in plates has been the subject of numerous investigations since their postulation by Lamb in 1916 [1,2]. Most of the work in existence deals with various aspects of these guided waves in plates of isotropic materials. Comparatively speaking a limited number of results has appeared in which Lamb or horizontaly polarized SH wave propagation in anisotropic plates has been considered in any detail. For Lamb waves, theoretical analyses have been reported in plates of cubic [3,4], transversely isotropic [5,6], and orthotropic [7,9] media
Full Stokes imaging polarimetry using dielectric metasurfaces
Polarization is a degree of freedom of light carrying important information
that is usually absent in intensity and spectral content. Imaging polarimetry
is the process of determining the polarization state of light, either partially
or fully, over an extended scene. It has found several applications in various
fields, from remote sensing to biology. Among different devices for imaging
polarimetry, division of focal plane polarization cameras (DoFP-PCs) are more
compact, less complicated, and less expensive. In general, DoFP-PCs are based
on an array of polarization filters in the focal plane. Here we demonstrate a
new principle and design for DoFP-PCs based on dielectric metasurfaces with the
ability to control polarization and phase. Instead of polarization filtering,
the method is based on splitting and focusing light in three different
polarization bases. Therefore, it enables full-Stokes characterization of the
state of polarization, and overcomes the 50% theoretical efficiency limit of
the polarization-filter-based DoFP-PCs.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure
Ultrafast optical rotations of electron spins in quantum dots
Coherent manipulation of quantum bits (qubits) on time scales much shorter
than the coherence time is a key prerequisite for quantum information
processing. Electron spins in quantum dots (QDs) are particularly attractive
for implementations of qubits. Efficient optical methods for initialization and
readout of spins have been developed in recent years. Spin coherence times in
the microsecond range have been demonstrated, so that spin control by
picosecond optical pulses would be highly desirable. Then a large number of
spin rotations could be performed while coherence is maintained. A major
remaining challenge is demonstration of such rotations with high fidelity. Here
we use an ensemble of QD electron spins focused into a small number of
precession modes about a magnetic field by periodic optical pumping. We
demonstrate ultrafast optical rotations of spins about arbitrary axes on a
picosecond time scale using laser pulses as control fields.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Universal quantum control of two-electron spin quantum bits using dynamic nuclear polarization
One fundamental requirement for quantum computation is to perform universal
manipulations of quantum bits at rates much faster than the qubit's rate of
decoherence. Recently, fast gate operations have been demonstrated in logical
spin qubits composed of two electron spins where the rapid exchange of the two
electrons permits electrically controllable rotations around one axis of the
qubit. However, universal control of the qubit requires arbitrary rotations
around at least two axes. Here we show that by subjecting each electron spin to
a magnetic field of different magnitude we achieve full quantum control of the
two-electron logical spin qubit with nanosecond operation times. Using a single
device, a magnetic field gradient of several hundred milliTesla is generated
and sustained using dynamic nuclear polarization of the underlying Ga and As
nuclei. Universal control of the two-electron qubit is then demonstrated using
quantum state tomography. The presented technique provides the basis for single
and potentially multiple qubit operations with gate times that approach the
threshold required for quantum error correction.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary Material included as ancillary
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Tunable magnetic exchange interactions in manganese-doped inverted core/shell ZnSe/CdSe nanocrystals
Magnetic doping of semiconductor nanostructures is actively pursued for
applications in magnetic memory and spin-based electronics. Central to these
efforts is a drive to control the interaction strength between carriers
(electrons and holes) and the embedded magnetic atoms. In this respect,
colloidal nanocrystal heterostructures provide great flexibility via
growth-controlled `engineering' of electron and hole wavefunctions within
individual nanocrystals. Here we demonstrate a widely tunable magnetic sp-d
exchange interaction between electron-hole excitations (excitons) and
paramagnetic manganese ions using `inverted' core-shell nanocrystals composed
of Mn-doped ZnSe cores overcoated with undoped shells of narrower-gap CdSe.
Magnetic circular dichroism studies reveal giant Zeeman spin splittings of the
band-edge exciton that, surprisingly, are tunable in both magnitude and sign.
Effective exciton g-factors are controllably tuned from -200 to +30 solely by
increasing the CdSe shell thickness, demonstrating that strong quantum
confinement and wavefunction engineering in heterostructured nanocrystal
materials can be utilized to manipulate carrier-Mn wavefunction overlap and the
sp-d exchange parameters themselves.Comment: To appear in Nature Materials; 18 pages, 4 figures + Supp. Inf
Harnessing nuclear spin polarization fluctuations in a semiconductor nanowire
Soon after the first measurements of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in a
condensed matter system, Bloch predicted the presence of statistical
fluctuations proportional to in the polarization of an ensemble of
spins. First observed by Sleator et al., so-called "spin noise" has
recently emerged as a critical ingredient in nanometer-scale magnetic resonance
imaging (nanoMRI). This prominence is a direct result of MRI resolution
improving to better than 100 nm^3, a size-scale in which statistical spin
fluctuations begin to dominate the polarization dynamics. We demonstrate a
technique that creates spin order in nanometer-scale ensembles of nuclear spins
by harnessing these fluctuations to produce polarizations both larger and
narrower than the natural thermal distribution. We focus on ensembles
containing ~10^6 phosphorus and hydrogen spins associated with single InP and
GaP nanowires (NWs) and their hydrogen-containing adsorbate layers. We monitor,
control, and capture fluctuations in the ensemble's spin polarization in
real-time and store them for extended periods. This selective capture of large
polarization fluctuations may provide a route for enhancing the weak magnetic
signals produced by nanometer-scale volumes of nuclear spins. The scheme may
also prove useful for initializing the nuclear hyperfine field of electron spin
qubits in the solid-state.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
Triplet-Singlet Spin Relaxation via Nuclei in a Double Quantum Dot
The spin of a confined electron, when oriented originally in some direction,
will lose memory of that orientation after some time. Physical mechanisms
leading to this relaxation of spin memory typically involve either coupling of
the electron spin to its orbital motion or to nuclear spins. Relaxation of
confined electron spin has been previously measured only for Zeeman or exchange
split spin states, where spin-orbit effects dominate relaxation, while spin
flips due to nuclei have been observed in optical spectroscopy studies. Using
an isolated GaAs double quantum dot defined by electrostatic gates and direct
time domain measurements, we investigate in detail spin relaxation for
arbitrary splitting of spin states. Results demonstrate that electron spin
flips are dominated by nuclear interactions and are slowed by several orders of
magnitude when a magnetic field of a few millitesla is applied. These results
have significant implications for spin-based information processing
Controllable effects of quantum fluctuations on spin free-induction decay at room temperature
Fluctuations of local fields cause decoherence of quantum objects. Usually at high temperatures, thermal noises are much stronger than quantum fluctuations unless the thermal effects are suppressed by certain techniques such as spin echo. Here we report the discovery of strong quantum-fluctuation effects of nuclear spin baths on free-induction decay of single electron spins in solids at room temperature. We find that the competition between the quantum and thermal fluctuations is controllable by an external magnetic field. These findings are based on Ramsey interference measurement of single nitrogen-vacancy center spins in diamond and numerical simulation of the decoherence, which are in excellent agreement
Pauli Spin Blockade in a Highly Tunable Silicon Double Quantum Dot
Double quantum dots are convenient solid-state platforms to encode quantum information. Two-electron spin states can be detected and manipulated using quantum selection rules based on the Pauli exclusion principle, leading to Pauli spin blockade of electron transport for triplet states. Coherent spin states would be optimally preserved in an environment free of nuclear spins, which is achievable in silicon by isotopic purification. Here we report on a deliberately engineered, gate-defined silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor double quantum dot system. The electron occupancy of each dot and the inter-dot tunnel coupling are independently tunable by electrostatic gates. At weak inter-dot coupling we clearly observe Pauli spin blockade and measure a large intra-dot singlet-triplet splitting > 1 meV. The leakage current in spin blockade has a peculiar magnetic field dependence, unrelated to electron-nuclear effects and consistent with the effect of spin-flip cotunneling processes. The results obtained here provide excellent prospects for realising singlet-triplet qubits
Locking electron spins into magnetic resonance by electron-nuclear feedback
The main obstacle to coherent control of two-level quantum systems is their
coupling to an uncontrolled environment. For electron spins in III-V quantum
dots, the random environment is mostly given by the nuclear spins in the
quantum dot host material; they collectively act on the electron spin through
the hyperfine interaction, much like a random magnetic field. Here we show that
the same hyperfine interaction can be harnessed such that partial control of
the normally uncontrolled environment becomes possible. In particular, we
observe that the electron spin resonance frequency remains locked to the
frequency of an applied microwave magnetic field, even when the external
magnetic field or the excitation frequency are changed. The nuclear field
thereby adjusts itself such that the electron spin resonance condition remains
satisfied. General theoretical arguments indicate that this spin resonance
locking is accompanied by a significant reduction of the randomness in the
nuclear field.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 pages supplementary materia