Search

We propose a nanomechanical device which can actuate and probe a flying qubit that can be used to facilitate quantum information transfer over a long distance. The flying qubit is formed by a movable Cooper pair box (CPB) consisting of a superconducting dot and a bulk superconductor which are entangled by removing the Coulomb blockade of Cooper pair tunneling electrostatically. We suggest that flying qubit states formed on movable CPB can be observed in electron transport to a normal electrode via Andreev reflections. The charge transfer due to periodic mechanical motion of CPB leads to nonzero current at zero voltage and its coherence can be identified through oscillatory dependence of the current on a gate voltage., Comment: Main text: 4 pages, 3 figures, Supplemental material: 3 pages

We suggest a nanoelectromechanical setup and corresponding time protocol of its manipulation by which we transduce quantum information from charge qubit to nanomechanical cat state. The setup is based on the AC Josephson effect between bulk superconductors and mechanically vibrating mesoscopic superconducting island in the regime of the Cooper pair box. Starting with a pure state with quantum information initially encoded into superposition of the Cooper pair box states, applying a specially tailored time protocol upon bias voltage and gate electrodes, we obtain a new pure state with information finally encoded into superposition of nanomechanical coherent states constituting the cat state. This performance is achieved using quantum entanglement between electrical and mechanical states. Nanomechanical cat states serve as a storage of quantum information, motivated by significantly longer decoherence time with respect to the charge qubit states, from which the information can be transdued back to the charge qubit applying the reverse time protocol., Comment: 6 pages, 4 pictures

A nanoelectromechanical weak link composed of a carbon nanotube suspended between two normal electrodes in a gap between two superconducting leads is considered. The nanotube is treated as a movable single-level quantum dot in which the position-dependent superconducting order parameter is induced due to the Cooper pair tunneling. We show that electron tunneling processes significantly affect the state of the mechanical subsystem. We found that at a given direction of the applied voltage between the electrodes, the stationary state of the mechanical subsystem has a Boltzmann form with an effective temperature depended on the parameters of the device. As this takes place, the effective temperature can reach significantly small values (cooling effect). We also demonstrate that nanotube fluctuations strongly affect the dc current through the system. The latter can be used to probe the predicted effects in an experiment., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2112.00210

We consider a nanoelectromechanical system composed of a carbon nanotube suspended between two normal leads and coupled to a superconducting scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip via vacuum tunnel barrier. Treating the nanotube as a single-level quantum dot, it is shown that an applied voltage between the superconducting STM tip and normal leads gives rise to a pumping or a cooling of the mechanical subsystem depending on the direction of the electronic flow. It is also demonstrated that the transition between these two regimes is controlled by the strength of the tunnel coupling between the nanotube and superconducting STM tip and the relative position of the electronic level. Such phenomena are realized due to a specific electromechanical coupling that is fully governed by the quantum dynamics of the Cooper pairs. The amplitude of the self-sustained oscillations in the pumping regime is analyzed numerically, and the effective temperature of the mechanical subsystem in the cooling regime is obtained.

We consider a nanoelectromechanical weak link composed of a carbon nanotube suspended above a trench in a normal metal electrode and positioned in a gap between two superconducting leads. The nanotube is treated as a movable single-level quantum dot in which the position-dependent superconducting order parameter is induced as a result of Cooper pair tunneling. We show that in such a system, self-sustained bending vibrations can emerge if a bias voltage is applied. The occurrence of this effect crucially depends on the direction of the bias voltage and the relative position of the quantum dot level. We also demonstrate that the nanotube vibrations strongly affect the dc current through the system, a characteristic that can be used for the direct experimental observation of the predicted phenomenon., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We considered a nanoelectromechanical system consisting of a movable Cooper-pair box qubit which is subject to an electrostatic field, and coupled to the two bulk superconductors via tunneling processes. We suggest that qubit dynamics is related to the one of a quantum oscillator and demonstrate that a bias voltage applied between superconductors generates states represented by the entanglement of qubit states and coherent states of the oscillator if certain resonant conditions are fulfilled. It is shown that a structure of this entanglement may be controlled by the bias voltage in a way that gives rise to the entanglement incorporating so-called cat-states - the superposition of coherent states. We characterize the formation and development of such states analyzing the entropy of entanglement and corresponding Wigner function. The experimentally feasible detection of the effect by measuring the average current is also considered., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures

We predict and analyze mechanical instability and corresponding self-sustained mechanical oscillations occurring in a nanoelectromechanical system composed of a metallic carbon nanotube (CNT) suspended between two superconducting leads and coupled to a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip. We show that such phenomena are realized in the presence of both the coherent Andreev tunneling between the CNT and superconducting leads, and an incoherent single electron tunneling between the voltage biased STM tip and CNT. Treating the CNT as a single-level quantum dot, we demonstrate that the mechanical instability is controlled by the Josephson phase difference, relative position of the electron energy level, and the direction of the charge flow. It is found numerically that the emergence of the self-sustained oscillations leads to a substantial suppression of DC electric current.

We consider a model describing a spin field-effect transistor based on a quantum nanowire with a tunable spin-orbit interaction embedded between two ferromagnetic leads with anticollinear magnetization. We investigate a regime of a strong interplay between resonance Kondo scattering and interference associated with the Aharonov-Casher effect. Using the Keldysh technique at weak coupling regime we calculate perturbatively the charge current. It is predicted that the effects of the spin-orbit interaction result in a non-vanishing current for any spin polarization of the leads including the case of fully polarized anti-collinear contacts. We analyze the influence of the Aharonov-Casher phase and degree of spin polarization in the leads onto a Kondo temperature.

We show that nano-mechanical vibrations in a magnetic shuttle device can be strongly affected by external microwave irradiation through photo-assisted electronic spin-flip transitions. Mechanical consequences of these spin-flips are due to a spin-dependent magnetic force, which may lead to a nano-mechanical instability in the device. We derive a criterion for the instability to actually occur and analyze different regimes of possible nano-mechanical oscillations. Possible experimental realizations of the spin-mediated photo-mechanical instability and detection of the device back action are discussed., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

A single-electron tunneling (SET) device with a nanoscale central island that can move with respect to the bulk source- and drain electrodes allows for a nanoelectromechanical (NEM) coupling between the electrical current through the device and mechanical vibrations of the island. Although an electromechanical "shuttle" instability and the associated phenomenon of single-electron shuttling were predicted more than 15 years ago, both theoretical and experimental studies of NEM-SET structures are still carried out. New functionalities based on quantum coherence, Coulomb correlations and coherent electron-spin dynamics are of particular current interest. In this article we present a short review of recent activities in this area., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1303.0740

A single-electron tunneling (SET) device with a nanoscale central island that can move with respect to the bulk source- and drain electrodes allows for a nanoelectromechanical (NEM) coupling between the electrical current through the device and mechanical vibrations of the island. Although an electromechanical "shuttle" instability and the associated phenomenon of single-electron shuttling were predicted more than 15 years ago, both theoretical and experimental studies of NEM-SET structures are still carried out. New functionalities based on quantum coherence, Coulomb correlations and coherent electron-spin dynamics are of particular current interest. In this article we present a short review of recent activities in this area., Comment: 23 pages, 26 figures

We consider electromechanical properties of a single-electronic device consisting of movable quantum dot attached to a vibrating cantilever, forming a tunnel contact with a non-movable source electrode. We show that the resonance Kondo tunneling of electrons amplify exponentially the strength of nanoelectromechanical (NEM) coupling in such device and makes the latter to be insensitive to mesoscopic fluctuations of electronic levels in a nano-dot. It is also shown that the study of Kondo-NEM phenomenon provides an additional (as compared with a standard conductance measurements in a non-mechanical device) information on retardation effects in formation of many-particle cloud accompanied the Kondo tunneling. A possibility for superhigh tunability of mechanical dissipation as well as supersensitive detection of mechanical displacement is demonstrated., Comment: 4.5 pages, 2 figures

We consider a nanowire suspended on two spin-polarized leads and subject to a nonuniform magnetic field. We show that in such a system a temperature drop between leads can significantly affect the nanowire dynamics. In particular, it is demonstrated that under certain conditions the stationary distribution of the mechanical subsystem has Boltzmann form with effective temperature which is smaller than the temperature of the "cold" lead; this seems rather counterintuitive. We also find that the change of the direction of the temperature gradient results in generation of mechanical vibrations rather than heating of the mechanical subsystem., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We consider a superlattice of parallel metal tunnel junctions with a spatially non-homogeneous probability for electrons to tunnel. In such structures tunneling can be accompanied by electron scattering that conserves energy but not momentum. In the special case of a tunneling probability that varies periodically with period $a$ in the longitudinal direction, i.e., perpendicular to the junctions, electron tunneling is accompanied by "umklapp" scattering, where the longitudinal momentum changes by a multiple of $h/a$. We predict that as a result a sequence of metal-insulator transitions can be induced by an external electric- or magnetic field as the field strength is increased., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We investigate theoretically the electromechanical properties of freely suspended nanowires that are in tunnelling contact with the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) and two supporting metallic leads. The aim of our analysis is to characterize the fluctuations of the dynamical variables of the nanowire when a temperature drop is mantained between the STM tip and the leads, which are all assumed to be electrically grounded. By solving a quantum master equation that describes the coupled dynamics of electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom we find that the stationary state of the mechanical oscillator has a Gaussian character, but that the amplitude of its root-mean square center-of-mass fluctuations is smaller than would be expected if the system were coupled only to the leads at thermal equilibrium., Comment: Published version

We show that the vibrations of a nanomechanical resonator can be cooled to near its quantum ground state by tunnelling injection of electrons from an STM tip. The interplay between two mechanisms for coupling the electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom results in a bias-voltage dependent difference between the probability amplitudes for vibron emission and absorption during tunneling. For a bias voltage just below the Coulomb blockade threshold we find that absorption dominates, which leads to cooling corresponding to an average vibron population of the fundamental bending mode of 0.2., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

An implementation of a quantum computer based on space states in double quantum dots is discussed. There is no charge transfer in qubits during calculation, therefore, uncontrollable entan-glement between them due to long-range Coulomb interaction is suppressed. Other plausible sources of decoherence caused by interaction with phonons and gates could be substantially suppressed in the structure too. We also demonstrate how all necessary quantum logic operations, initialization, writing, and read-out could be carried out in the computer., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX format

We demonstrate that a supercurrent can pump energy from a battery that provides a voltage bias into nanomechanical vibrations. Using a device containing a nanowire Josephson weak link as an example we show that a nonlinear coupling between the supercurrent and a static external magnetic field leads to a Lorentz force that excites bending vibrations of the wire at resonance conditions. We also demonstrate the possibility to achieve more than one regime of stationary nonlinear vibrations and how to detect them via the associated dc Josephson currents and we discuss possible applications of such a multistable nanoelectromechanical dynamics., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

Fano resonances are proposed to perform a measurement of a spin state (whether it is up or down) of a single electron in a quantum dot via a spin-polarized current in an adjacent quantum wire. Rashba-like spin-orbit interaction in a quantum dot prohibits spin-flip events (Kondo-like phenomenon). That ensures the measurement to be non-demolishing., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, references added

We investigate theoretically multi-mode electromechanical "shuttle" instabilities in DC voltage-biased nanoelectromechanical single-electron tunneling (NEM-SET) devices. We show that initially irregular (quasi-periodic) oscillations, that occur as a result of the simultaneous self-excitation of several mechanical modes with incommensurable frequencies, self-organize into periodic oscillations with a frequency corresponding to the eigenfrequency of one of the unstable modes. This effect demonstrates that a local probe can selectively excite global vibrations of extended objects., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. In press by Phys. Rev. Lett

Mechanical displacements of a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) shift the electron trajectories and hence perturb phase coherent charge transport through the device. We show theoretically that in the presence of a magnetic feld such quantum-coherent displacements may give rise to an Aharonov-Bohm-type of effect. In particular, we demonstrate that quantum vibrations of a suspended carbon nanotube result in a positive nanotube magnetoresistance, which decreases slowly with the increase of temperature. This effect may enable one to detect quantum displacement fluctuations of a nanomechanical device., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We have theoretically investigated electromechanical properties of freely suspended carbon nanotubes when a current is injected into the tubes using a scanning tunneling microscope. We show that a shuttle-like electromechanical instability can occur if the bias voltage exceeds a dissipation-dependent threshold value. An instability results in large amplitude vibrations of the carbon nanotube bending mode, which modify the current-voltage characteristics of the system.

We study transport of spin-polarized electrons through a magnetic single-electron transistor (SET) in the presence of an external magnetic field. Assuming the SET to have a nanometer size central island with a single electron level we find that the interplay on the island between coherent spin-flip dynamics and Coulomb interactions can make the Coulomb correlations promote rather than suppress the current through the device. We find the criteria for this new phenomenon -- Coulomb promotion of spin-dependent tunnelling -- to occur., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; The new version has a slightly modified title, 2 more figures, and an extended analysis of the (same) results obtained

We consider effects of the spin degree of freedom on the nanomechanics of a single-electron transistor (SET) containing a nanometer-sized metallic cluster suspended between two magnetic leads. It is shown that in such a nanoelectromechanical SET(NEM-SET) the onset of an electromechanical instability leading to cluster vibrations and "shuttle" transport of electrons between the leads can be controlled by an external magnetic field. Different stable regimes of this spintronic NEM-SET operation are analyzed. Two different scenarios for the onset of shuttle vibrations are found., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We consider "shuttling" of spin-polarized electrons between two magnetic electrodes (half-metals) by a movable dot with a single electronic level. If the magnetization of the electrodes is antiparallel we show that the transmittance of the system can be changed by orders of magnitude if an external magnetic field, perpendicular to the polarization of the electronic spins, is applied. A giant magnetotransmittance effect can be achieved for weak external fields of order $1\div 10$ Oe., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures

An analytical analysis of quantum shuttle phenomena in a nanoelectromechanical single-electron transistor has been performed in the realistic case, when the electron tunnelling length is much greater than the amplitude of the zero point oscillations of the central island. It is shown that when the dissipation is below a certain threshold value, the vibrational ground state of the central island is unstable. The steady-state into which this instability develops is studied. It is found that if the electric field ${\cal E}$ between the leads is much greater than a characteristic value ${\cal E}_q$, the quasiclassical shuttle picture is recovered, while if ${\cal E}\ll{\cal E}_q$ a new quantum regime of shuttle vibrations occurs. We show that in the latter regime small quantum fluctuations result in large (i.e. finite in the limit $\hbar \to 0$) shuttle vibrations., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

We consider the microwave dynamics and transport properties of a voltage-biased single-Cooper-pair transistor. The dynamics is shown to be strongly affected by interference between multiple microwave-induced inter-level transitions. As a result the magnitude and direction of the dc Josephson current are extremely sensitive to small variations of the bias voltage and to changes in the frequency of the microwave field., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Fully quantized mechanical motion of a single-level quantum dot coupled to two voltage biased electronic leads is studied. It is found that there are two different regimes depending on the applied voltage. If the bias voltage is below a certain threshold (which depends on the energy of the vibrational quanta) the mechanical subsystem is characterized by a low level of excitation. Above a threshold the energy accumulated in the mechanical degree of freedom dramatically increases. The distribution function for the energy level population and the current through the system in this regime is calculated., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

The effects of a coupling between the quantized mechanical vibrations of a quantum dot and coherent tunneling of electrons through a single level in the dot are studied. The equation of motion for the reduced density operator describing the vibrational degree of freedom is obtained. It is shown that that the expectation value of the displacement is an oscillating function of time with an exponentially increasing amplitude, which is the signature of a quantum shuttle instability., Comment: 4 pages,1 figure

We demonstrate a possibility to manipulate the magnetic coupling between two nanomagnets with a help of ac electric field. In the scheme suggested the magnetic coupling in question is mediated by a magnetic particle contacting with both of the nanomagnets through the tunnel barriers. The electric field providing a successive suppression of the barriers leads to pumping of magnetization through the mediating particle. Time dependent dynamics of the particle magnetization allows to to switch between ferro- and antiferromagnetic couplings., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

Transportation of Cooper-pairs by a movable single Cooper-pair-box placed between two remote superconductors is shown to establish coherent coupling between them. This coupling is due to entanglement of the movable box with the leads and is manifested in the supression of quantum fluctuations of the relative phase of the order parameters of the leads. It can be probed by attaching a high resistance Josephson junction between the leads and measuring the current through this junction. The current is suppressed with increasing temperature., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX; Updated version, typos corrected

We investigate the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of a model single-electron transistor where mechanical motion, subject to strong dissipation, of a small metallic grain is possible. The system is studied both by using Monte Carlo simulations and by using an analytical approach. We show that electromechanical coupling results in a highly nonlinear IV-curve. For voltages above the Coulomb blockade threshold, two distinct regimes of charge transfer occur: At low voltages the system behave as a static asymmetric double junction and tunneling is the dominating charge transfer mechanism. At higher voltages an abrupt transition to a new shuttle regime appears, where the grain performs an oscillatory motion back and forth between the leads. In this regime the current is mainly mediated by charges that are carried on the grain as it moves from one lead to the other., Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, final version to be published in PRB

Effects of a coupling between the mechanical vibrations of a quantum dot placed between the two leads of a single electron transistor and coherent tunneling of electrons through a single level in the dot has been studied. We have found that for bias voltages exceeding a certain critical value a dynamical instability occurs and mechanical vibrations of the dot develop into a stable limit cycle. The current-voltage characteristics for such a transistor were calculated and they seem to be in a reasonably good agreement with recent experimental results for the single $C_{60}$-molecule transistor by Park et al.(Nature {\bf 407,} (2000) 57)., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

A coherent hybrid of states with different number of Cooper pairs can be built in a superconductor grain as a result of periodically repeated discrete encounters with bulk superconductor leads. As a direct manifestation of such states a non-dissipative current depending on the phase difference between the leads can be measured., Comment: 4 Pages Revtex, 3 figures. Updated references. Typos corrected

We have studied a one-dimensional channel with a wider, straight region irradiated by an external electromagnetic field. In this system the interplay between interference effects and resonance phenomena manifests itself and provides a new behavior of conduction. We show that the transport properties of the system can be affected by changing frequency and the amplitude of the external field. We also show that for certain combinations of these parameters electron transport through the system is complitely blocked., Comment: for higher resolution pictures, please contact the authors: sara@fy.chalmers.se

A novel implementation of a charge based quantum computer is proposed. There is no charge transfer during calculation, therefore, uncontrollable entanglement between qubits due to long-range Coulomb forces is suppressed. High-speed computation with 1ps per an operation looks as feasible., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

We show that transport through a superconducting quantum point contact biased at subgap voltages is strongly affected by a microwave field. The subgap current is increased by several orders of magnitude. Quantum interference among resonant scattering events involving photon absorption is reflected as an oscillating structure in the I-V curve. We also discuss how the same interference effect can be applied for detecting weak electromagnetic signals up to the gap frequency, and how it is affected by dephasing and relaxation., Comment: 11 figures

We use a semiclassical approach for analysing the tunneling transport through a normal conductor in contact with superconducting mirrors. Our analysis of the electron-hole propagation along semiclassical trajectories shows that resonant transmission through Andreev levels is possible resulting in an excess, low-energy quasiparticle contribution to the conductance. The excess conductance oscillates with the phase difference between the superconductors having maxima at odd multiples of $\pi$ for temperatures much below the Thouless temperature, Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; submitted to a special volume of Superlattices and Microstructures on Mesoscopic Superconductivity

We show that irradiation of a voltage-biased superconducting quantum point contact at frequencies of the order of the gap energy can remove the suppression of subgap dc transport through Andreev levels. Quantum interference among resonant scattering events involving photon absorption is furthermore shown to make microwave spectroscopy of the Andreev levels feasible. We also discuss how the same interference effect can be applied for detecting weak electromagnetic signals up to the gap frequency, and how it is affected by dephasing and relaxation., Comment: Submitted to a special volume of "Superlattices and Microstructures" on Mesoscopic Superconductivity

We study a simple model of a self-assembled, room temperature Coulomb-blockade nanostructure containing a metallic nanocrystal or grain connected by soft molecular links to two metallic electrodes. Self-excitation of periodic grain vibrations at 10 - 100 GHz is shown to be possible for a sufficiently large bias voltage leading to a novel `shuttle mechanism' of discrete charge transfer and a current through the nanostructure proportional to the vibration frequency. For the case of weak electromechanical coupling an analytical approach is developed which together with Monte Carlo simulations shows that the shuttle instability for structures with high junction resistances leads to hysteresis in the current - voltage characteristics., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. elsart.cls required; corrected typos and minor changes to the text

The dynamics of a superconducting quantum point contact biased at subgap voltages is shown to be strongly affected by a microwave electromagnetic field. Interference among a sequence of temporally localized, microwave-induced Landau-Zener transitions between current carrying Andreev levels results in energy absorption and in an increase of the subgap current by several orders of magnitude. The contact is an interferometer in the sense that the current is an oscillatory function of the inverse bias voltage. Possible applications to Andreev-level spectroscopy and microwave detection are discussed.

Room-temperature Coulomb blockade of charge transport through composite nanostructures containing organic inter-links has recently been observed. A pronounced charging effect in combination with the softness of the molecular links implies that charge transfer gives rise to a significant deformation of these structures. For a simple model system containing one nanoscale metallic cluster connected by molecular links to two bulk metallic electrodes we show that self-excitation of periodic cluster oscillations in conjunction with sequential processes of cluster charging and decharging appears for a sufficiently large bias voltage. This new `electron shuttle' mechanism of discrete charge transfer gives rise to a current through the nanostructure, which is proportional to the cluster vibration frequency., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We study the effect of a strong electron-electron (e-e) interaction in a system of two concentric one-dimensional rings with incommensurate areas A_1 and A_2, coupled by a tunnel amplitude. For noninteracting particles the magnetic moment (persistent current) m of the many-body ground state and first excited states is an irregular function of the external magnetic field. In contrast, we show that when strong e-e interactions are present the magnetic field dependence of m becomes periodic. In such a strongly correlated system disorder can only be caused by inter-ring charge fluctuations, controllable by a gate voltage. The oscillation period of m is proportional to 1/(A_1 + A_2) if fluctuations are suppressed. Coherent inter-ring tunneling doubles the period when charge fluctuations are allowed., Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures

We consider the energy stored in a one-dimensional ballistic ring with a barrier subject to a linearly time-dependent magnetic flux. An exact analytic solution for the quantum dynamics of electrons in the ring is found for the case when the electro-motive force ${\cal E}$ is much smaller than the level spacing, $\Delta$. Electron states exponentially localized in energy are found for irrational values of the ratio $A\equiv\Delta/2e{\cal E}$. Relaxation limits the dynamic evolution and localization does not develop if $A$ is sufficiently close to a rational number. As a result the accumulated energy becomes a regular function of $A$ containing a set of sharp peaks at rational values (fractional pumping). The shape of the peaks and the distances between them are governed by the interplay between the strength of backscattering and the relaxation rate., Comment: 4 pages, LaTex (RevTeX), 2 figures in eps-format, to appear in Physical Review Letters

We study a model of two concentric onedimensional rings with incommensurate areas $A_1$ and $A_2$, in a constant magnetic field. The two rings are coupled by a nonhomogeneous inter-ring tunneling amplitude, which makes the one-particle spectrum chaotic. For noninteracting particles the energy of the many-body ground state and the first excited state exhibit random fluctuations characterized by the Wigner-Dyson statistics. In contrast, we show that the electron-electron interaction orders the magnetic field dependence of these quantities, forcing them to become periodic functions, with period $ \propto 1/(A_1 + A_2)$. In such a strongly correlated system the only possible source of disorder comes from charge fluctuations, which can be controlled by a tunable inter-ring gate voltage., Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, revised text and new figures (as published)

We predict a spatially varying mode population to appear in a GaAs/AlGaAs-2DEG ballistic quantum channel pumped by a THz-field. If a resonant coupling between two modes is suddenly switched on at the entrance, Rabi oscillations in the mode population will arise. We propose to use an array of gates in order to simulate a moving quantum point contact for detecting the mode population oscillations, since they discriminate between different modes. By consecutively activating them we expect to see both photovoltaic effects and photoconductive effects which can easily be distinguished from noise., Comment: 8 pages, revtex, 4 figures included, 5 files

We show that electron transport in a ballistic microchannel supporting both propagating and reflected modes can be completely blocked by applying a microwave electromagnetic field. The effect is due to resonant reflection caused by multiple coherent electron-photon scattering involving at least two spatially localized scattering centers in the channel. With many such scattering centers present the conductance is shown to have an irregular dependence on bias voltage, gate voltage and frequency with irregularily spaced dips corresponding to resonant reflection. When averaged over bias, gate voltage or frequency the conductance will decay exponentially with channel length in full analogy with the localization of 1D electrons caused by impurity scattering., Comment: 4 pages, latex, 1 figure available on request

We consider the supercurrent flow through gated mesoscopic semiconductor hetrostructures in which a two-dimensional normal constriction is confined between superconducting electrodes. We show that for these structures the Josephson current, carried by quantized electron modes, can be strongly affected by an electromagnetic field. Photon-assisted Landau-Zener transitions between Andreev bound states in the constriction manifest themselves in one of two ways: (i) If the phase difference between the superconducting elements is fixed a series of reversals in the direction of supercurrent flow occurs (Somersault effect). (ii) If instead the junction is current biased a series of voltage spikes is seen. Both manifestations are a direct consequence of the discrete energy spectrum of the mesoscopic junction. We discuss necessary conditions for the described phenomena to be experimentally observable., Comment: 4 pages, latex, 2 figures available on request