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A flat energy dispersion of electrons at the Fermi level of a material leads to instabilities in the electronic system and can drive phase transitions. Here we introduce a method to induce a flat band in two-dimensional (2D) materials. We show that the flat band can be achieved by sandwiching the 2D material by two cesium (Cs) layers. We apply this method to monolayer graphene and investigate the flat band by a combination of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiment and the calculation. Our work highlights that charge transfer, zone folding of graphene bands and the covalent bonding between C and Cs atoms are at the origin of the flat energy band formation. The presented approach is an alternative route for obtaining flat band materials to twisting bilayer graphene which yields thermodynamically stable flat band materials in large areas., Comment: 22 pages, 4 Figures

We present measurements of one-dimensional superconductor-semiconductor Coulomb islands, fabricated by gate confinement of a two-dimensional InAs heterostructure with an epitaxial Al layer. When tuned via electrostatic side gates to regimes without sub-gap states, Coulomb blockade reveals Cooper-pair mediated transport. When sub-gap states are present, Coulomb peak positions and heights oscillate in a correlated way with magnetic field and gate voltage, as predicted theoretically, with (anti) crossings in (parallel) transverse magnetic field indicating Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling. Overall results are consistent with a picture of overlapping Majorana zero modes in finite wires.

Coherent operation of gate-voltage-controlled hybrid transmon qubits (gatemons) based on semiconductor nanowires was recently demonstrated. Here we experimentally investigate the anharmonicity in epitaxial InAs-Al Josephson junctions, a key parameter for their use as a qubit. Anharmonicity is found to be reduced by roughly a factor of two compared to conventional metallic junctions, and dependent on gate voltage. Experimental results are consistent with a theoretical model, indicating that Josephson coupling is mediated by a small number of highly transmitting modes in the semiconductor junction.

We theoretically investigate the backaction of a sensor quantum dot with strong local Coulomb repulsion on the transient dynamics of a qubit that is probed capacitively. We show that the measurement backaction induced by the noise of electron cotunneling through the sensor is surprisingly mitigated by the recently identified coherent backaction [PRB 89, 195405] arising from quantum fluctuations. This renormalization effect is missing in semiclassical stochastic fluctuator models and typically also in Born-Markov approaches, which try to avoid the calculation of the nonstationary, nonequilibrium state of the qubit plus sensor. Technically, we integrate out the current-carrying electrodes to obtain kinetic equations for the joint, nonequilibrium detector-qubit dynamics. We show that the sensor-current response, level renormalization, cotunneling, and leading non-Markovian corrections always appear together and cannot be turned off individually in an experiment or ignored theoretically. We analyze the backaction on the reduced qubit state - capturing the full non-Markovian effects imposed by the sensor quantum dot on the qubit - by applying a Liouville-space decomposition into quasistationary and rapidly decaying modes. Importantly, the sensor cannot be eliminated completely even in the simplest high-temperature, weak-measurement limit: The qubit state experiences an initial slip that persists over many qubit cycles and depends on the initial preparation of qubit plus sensor quantum dot. A quantum-dot sensor can thus not be modeled as a 'black box' without accounting for its dynamical variables. We furthermore find that the Bloch vector relaxes (T1) along an axis that is not orthogonal to the plane in which the Bloch vector dephases (T2), blurring the notions of T1 and T2 times. Finally, the precessional motion of the Bloch vector is distorted into an ellipse in the tilted dephasing plane., Comment: This is the version published in Phys. Rev. B

We predict that a single-level quantum dot without discernible splitting of its spin states develops a spin-precession resonance in charge transport when embedded into a spin valve. The resonance occurs in the generic situation of Coulomb blockaded transport with ferromagnetic leads whose polarizations deviate from perfect antiparallel alignment. The resonance appears when electrically tuning the interaction-induced exchange field perpendicular to one of the polarizations -- a simple condition relying on vectors in contrast to usual resonance conditions associated with energy splittings. The spin resonance can be detected by stationary dI/dV spectroscopy and by oscillations in the time-averaged current using a gate-pulsing scheme. The generic noncollinearity of the ferromagnets and junction asymmetry allow for an all-electric determination of the spin-injection asymmetry, the anisotropy of spin relaxation, and the magnitude of the exchange field. We also investigate the impact of a nearby superconductor on the resonance position. Our simplistic model turns out to be generic for a broad class of coherent few-level quantum systems., Comment: This is the version of the article published in Physical Review B in 2015

A sensitive technique for the readout of the state of a qubit is based on the measurement of the conductance through a proximal sensor quantum dot (SQD). Here, we theoretically study the coherent backaction of such a measurement on a coupled SQD-charge-qubit system. We derive Markovian kinetic equations for the ensemble-averaged state of the SQD-qubit system, expressed in the coupled dynamics of two charge-state occupations of the SQD and two qubit isospin vectors, one for each SQD charge state. We find that aside from introducing dissipation, the detection also renormalizes the coherent evolution of the SQD-qubit system. Basically, if the electron on the detector has time to probe the qubit, then it also has time to fluctuate and thereby renormalize the system parameters. In particular, this induces torques on the qubit isospins, similar to the spin torque generated by the spintronic exchange field in noncollinear spin-valve structures. Secondly, we show that for a consistent description of the detection, one must also include the renormalization effects in the next-to-leading order in the electron tunneling rates, especially at the point of maximal sensitivity of the detector. Although we focus on a charge-qubit model, our findings are generic for qubit readout schemes that are based on spin-to-charge conversion using a quantum-dot detector. Furthermore, our study of the stationary current through the SQD, a test measurement verifying that the qubit couples to the detector current, already reveals various significant effects of the isospin torques on the qubit. Our kinetic equations provide a starting point for further studies of the time evolution in charge-based qubit readout. Finally, we provide a rigorous sum rule that constrains such approximate descriptions of the qubit isospin dynamics and show that it is obeyed by our kinetic equations., Comment: This is the version published in Phys. Rev. B. A misprint in the scale of Fig. 5(b) has been corrected