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We consider two-dimensional superconductor/ferromagnet/superconductor junctions and investigate the subgap modes along the junction interface. The subgap modes exhibit characteristics similar to the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states that originate form the interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism in the magnetic junction. The dispersion relation of the subgap modes shows qualitatively different profiles depending on the transport state (metallic, half-metallic, or insulating) of the ferromagnet. As the spin splitting in the ferromagnet is increased, the subgap modes bring about a $0$-$\pi$ transition in the Josephson current across the junction, with the Josephson current density depending strongly on the momentum along the junction interface (i.e., the direction of the incident current). For clean superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces (i.e., strong coupling between superconductors and ferromagnet), the subgap modes develop flat quasi-particle bands that allow to engineer the wave functions of the subgap modes along an inhomogeneous magnetic junction., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

We consider an ensemble of atoms with $\Lambda$-type level structure trapped in a single-mode cavity, and propose a geometric scheme of coherent manipulation of quantum states on the subspace of zero-energy states within the quantum Zeno subspace of the system. We find that the particular subspace inherits the decoherence-free nature of the quantum Zeno subspace and features a symmetry-protected degeneracy, fulfilling all the conditions for a universal scheme of arbitrary unitary operations on it., Comment: 5 pages with 3 figures. Supplemental Material is available upon request

We theoretically analyze a state-of-the-art experimental method based on a combination of electron spin resonance and scanning tunneling microscopy (ESR-STM), to directly probe the spin fluctuations in the Kondo effect. The Kondo impurity is exchange coupled to the probe spin, and the ESR-STM setup detects the small level shifts in the probe spin induced by the spin fluctuations of the Kondo impurity. We use the open quantum system approach by regarding the probe spin as the "system" and the Kondo impurity spin as the fluctuating "bath" to evaluate the resonance line shifts in terms of the dynamic spin susceptibility of the Kondo impurity. We consider various common adatoms on surfaces as possible probe spins and estimate the corresponding level shifts. It is found that the sensitivity is most pronounced for the probe spins with transverse magnetic anisotropy., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures; to appear in PRB

As a quest for two-dimensional conducting interface with exotic functionalities for future electronic devices, the perovskite heterointerface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) has been intensively studied. For the LAO/STO heterostructure, the critical thickness of the LAO layer for metallic conduction is 4 unit cells (uc) according to the polar catastrophe scenario. However, we find that metallic conduction can also be induced at the LAO/STO interface with only 1 uc of LAO, as long as it is capped by 3 or more uc of STO. Consistent results are obtained from density functional theory calculations. For this STO/LAO/STO trilayer, we also confirmed a peculiar non-BCS-type superconductivity with a suppressed superconducting gap, which may imply a superconducting coupling distinct from previously reported BCS-type superconductivity in LAO/STO heterointerface. These observations suggest that the STO/LAO/STO trilayer can be another testing board to explore carrier conduction in two-dimensional electron systems for electronic device applications utilizing exotic functionalities.

Controlling spin interactions in magnetic-molecules/metal is essential for spintronic applications. Recent studies showed that using small molecule coordination, one could switch off the spin interactions between magnetic-molecules and metal substrates. However, this control should not be limited to the two-state switching. The strength of spin interaction can be reduced, but not ``off'' by the proper selection of small molecules. To demonstrate this, we considered two contrasting systems, $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{H}}_{3}$ and $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ coordinated to Co-porphyrin/Au(111). In our scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM and STS), Kondo resonance was preserved with weakened spin coupling after $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{H}}_{3}$ coordination. However, it disappeared after $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ coordination, implying ``off'' spin coupling. These observations are explained with our density functional theory calculation results. This study shows that small molecule coordination to magnetic-molecules/metal is a powerful way to control spin interactions at the single-molecule level.

We study the interplay of superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and the Kondo effect in a single system, using vertical geometry and planar magnetic tunnel junction devices, in which a thin CoFe layer is inserted in the middle of the MgO layer, forming a quantum dot like system. It is shown that the Kondo resonance peak at the zero bias coexists with a sharp Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer gap on double tunnel junctions, Al/MgO/CoFe nanodot/MgO/Al. It is also found that the competition between superconductivity and the Kondo effect is tunable with magnetic fields and the temperature. The coexistence of Kondo screening and superconductivity survives long range magnetic order in CoFe nanodots with a spin polarization of 0.2; however, it disappears when the CoFe layer becomes a continuous film with a spin polarization of 0.5. The competition between SC and the Kondo effect in the presence of magnetic ordering opens exciting possibilities to control information in nanomagnets.

The ability to control electronic states at the nanoscale has contributed to our modern understanding of condensed matter. In particular, quantum dot circuits represent model systems for the study of strong electronic correlations, epitomized by the Kondo effect. Here, we show that circuit Quantum Electrodynamics architectures can be used to study the internal degrees of freedom of such a many-body phenomenon. We couple a quantum dot to a high finesse microwave cavity to measure with an unprecedented sensitivity the dot electronic compressibility i.e. the ability of the dot to accommodate charges. Because it corresponds solely to the charge response of the electronic system, this quantity is not equivalent to the conductance which involves in general other degrees of freedom such as spin. By performing dual conductance/compressibility measurements in the Kondo regime, we uncover directly the charge dynamics of this peculiar mechanism of electron transfer. Strikingly, the Kondo resonance, visible in transport measurements, is transparent to microwave photons trapped in the high finesse cavity. This reveals that, in such a many body resonance, finite conduction is achieved from a charge frozen by Coulomb interaction. This previously elusive freezing of charge dynamics is in stark contrast with the physics of a free electron gas. Our setup highlights the power of circuit quantum electrodynamics architectures to study condensed matter problems. The tools of cavity quantum electrodynamics could be used in other types of mesoscopic circuits with many-body correlations and bring a promising platform to perform quantum simulation of fermion-boson problems., Comment: minor differences with published version

We consider a quantum dot coupled to both superconducting and spin-polarized electrodes, and study the triad interplay of the Kondo effect, superconductivity, and ferromagnetism, any pair of which compete with and suppress each other. We find that the interplay leads to a mixed-valence quantum phase transition, which for other typical sysmstems is merely a crossover rather than a true transition. At the transition, the system changes from the spin doublet to singlet state. The singlet phase is adiabatically connected (through crossovers) to the so-called 'charge Kondo state' and to the superconducting state. We analyze in detail the physical characteristics of different states and propose that the measurement of the cross-current correlation and the charge relaxation resistance can clearly distinguish between them., Comment: 8 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. B

Using dynamic cantilever magnetometry and experimentally determining the cantilever's vibrational mode shape, we precisely measured the magnetic moment of a lithographically defined micron-sized superconducting Nb ring, a key element for the previously proposed subpiconewton force standard. The magnetic moments due to individual magnetic fluxoids and a diamagnetic response were independently determined at $T=4.3$ K, with a subfemtoampere-square-meter resolution. The results show good agreement with the theoretical estimation yielded by the Brandt and Clem model within the spring constant determination accuracy.

We examine the Jarzynski equality for a quenching process across the critical point of second-order phase transitions, where absolute irreversibility and the effect of finite-sampling of the initial equilibrium distribution arise in a single setup with equal significance. We consider the Ising model as a prototypical example for spontaneous symmetry breaking and take into account the finite sampling issue by introducing a tolerance parameter. The initially ordered spins become disordered by quenching the ferromagnetic coupling constant. For a sudden quench, the deviation from the Jarzynski equality evaluated from the ideal ensemble average could, in principle, depend on the reduced coupling constant ε0 of the initial state and the system size L. We find that, instead of depending on ε0 and L separately, this deviation exhibits a scaling behavior through a universal combination of ε0 and L for a given tolerance parameter, inherited from the critical scaling laws of second-order phase transitions. A similar scaling law can be obtained for the finite-speed quench as well within the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.

We propose a novel scheme to trap a particle based on a delicate interplay between coherence and decoherence. If the decoherence occurs as a particle is located in the scattering region and subsequently the appropriate destructive interference takes place, the particle can be trapped in the scattering area. We consider two possible experimental realizations of such trapping: a ring attached to a single lead and a ring attached to two leads. Our scheme has nothing to do with a quasi-bound state of the system, but has a close analogy with the weak localization phenomena in disordered conductors.

Core/shell heterostructure nanowires are one of the most interesting mesoscopic systems potentially suitable for the study of quantum interference phenomena. Here, we report on experimental observations of both the Aharonov-Bohm (h/e) and the Altshuler-Aronov-Spivak (h/2e) oscillations in radial core/shell (In2O3/InOx) heterostructure nanowires. For a long channel device with a length-to-width ratio of about 33, the magnetoresistance curves at low temperatures exhibited a crossover from low-field h/2e oscillation to high-field h/ e oscillation. The relationship between the oscillation period and the core width was investigated for freestanding or substrate-supported devices and indicated that the current flows dominantly through the core/shell interface.

We propose a new quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol, which exploits the maximal entanglement between home qubits and flying qubits induced by means of quantum Faraday rotation (QFR). The entanglement between the flying and home qubits provides the essential part of the security of the protocol. We also discuss possible experimental implementations, the optical cavity QED and quantum dots in microcavity, which is feasible in current spintronics technology.

We consider a topological superconducting wire and use the string order parameter to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of the topological order upon a quantum quench across the critical point. We also analyze the propagation of the initially localized Majorana bound states after the quench, in order to examine the connection between the topological order and the unpaired Majorana states, which has been well established at equilibrium but remains illusive in dynamical situations. It is found that after the quench the string order parameters decay over a finite time and that the decaying behavior is universal, independent of the wire length and the final value of the chemical potential (the quenching parameter). It is also found that the topological order is revived repeatedly although the amplitude gradually decreases. Further, the topological order can propagate into the region which was initially in the non-topological state. It is observed that all these behaviors are in parallel and consistent with the propagation and dispersion of the Majorana wave functions. Finally, we propose a local probing method which can measure the non-local topological order., Comment: 21 pages; 11 figures

We consider a quasi one-dimensional configuration consisting of two small pieces of ferromagnetic material separated by a metallic one and contacted by two metallic leads. A spin-polarized current is injected from one lead. Our goal is to investigate the correlation induced between the magnetizations of the two ferromagnets by spin-transfer torque. This torque results from the interaction between the magnetizations and the spin polarization of the current. We discuss the dynamics of a single ferromagnet, the extension to the case of two ferromagnets, and give some estimates for the parameters based on experiments., Comment: To appear in the Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Proceedings of the International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology, Basel, 2006)

We explore the photon population dynamics in two coupled circuit QED systems. For a sufficiently weak intercavity photon hopping, as the photon-cavity coupling increases, the dynamics undergoes double transitions first from a delocalized to a localized phase and then from the localized to another delocalized phase. The latter delocalized phase is distinguished from the former one; instead of oscillating between the two cavities, the photons rapidly quasiequilibrate over the two cavities. These intriguing features are attributed to an interplay between two qualitatively distinctive nonlinear behaviors of the circuit QED systems in the utrastrong coupling regime, whose distinction has been widely overlooked.

The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) is generalized to a class of multi-level systems and applied to study the quenching dynamics of one-dimensional (1D) topological superconductors (TS) with open ends. Unlike the periodic boundary condition, the open boundary condition, that is crucial for the zero-mode Majorana states localized at the boundaries, requires to consider many coupled levels. which is ultimately related to the zero-mode Majorana modes. Our generalized KZM predictions agree well with the numerically exact results for the 1D TS., 5 pages, 2 figures; The last section completely rewritten with more relevant plots in Fig. 2 (Fig 3 removed)

An electron antidot system is an open geometry problem and often requires heavy calculations to compute its physical properties. Such a difficulty can be avoided by transforming an electron antidot system to a system of hole quantum dot since the transformed system contains only a finite number of confined holes. Using this transformation, we present a microscopic approach to study electronic properties of an antidot in the integer quantum Hall regime. Based on this approach we discuss various conditions under which the Kondo effect may be present.

Complex oxide systems have attracted considerable attention because of their fascinating properties, including the magnetic ordering at the conducting interface between two band insulators, such as LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. However, the manipulation of the spin degree of freedom at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface has remained elusive. Here, we have fabricated hybrid magnetic tunnel junctions consisting of Co and LaAlO3/SrTiO3 ferromagnets with the insertion of a Ti layer in between, which clearly exhibit magnetic switching and the tunnelling magnetoresistance effect below 10 K. The magnitude and sign of the tunnelling magnetoresistance are strongly dependent on the direction of the rotational magnetic field parallel to the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 plane, which is attributed to a strong Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling in the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructure. Our study provides a further support for the existence of the macroscopic ferromagnetism at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerfaces and opens a novel route to realize interfacial spintronics devices., The interface between two insulating oxides can play host to magnetic ordering. Here, the authors manipulate the spin transport in a hybrid magnetic tunnel junction comprising two ferromagnets: one a cobalt layer and the other the interface between lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate.

This paper is devoted to an analysis of the experiment by Nakamura {\it et al.} (Nature {\bf 398}, 786 (1999)) on the quantum state control in Josephson junctions devices. By considering the relevant processes involved in the detection of the charge state of the box and a realistic description of the gate pulse we are able to analyze some aspects of the experiment (like the amplitude of the measurement current) in a quantitative way.

We investigate the quantum phase transitions in two capacitively coupled two-dimensional Josephson-junction arrays with charge frustration. The system is mapped onto the S=1 and $S=1/2$ anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets near the particle-hole symmetry line and near the maximal-frustration line, respectively, which are in turn argued to be effectively described by a single quantum phase model. Based on the resulting model, it is suggested that near the maximal frustration line the system may undergo a quantum phase transition from the charge-density wave to the super-solid phase, which displays both diagonal and off- diagonal long-range order., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B

© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd. We consider a two-dimensional magnetic tunnel junction of the FM/I/QW(FM+SO)/I/N structure, where FM, I and QW(FM+SO) stand for a ferromagnet, an insulator and a quantum wire with both magnetic ordering and Rashba spin-orbit (SOC), respectively. The tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) exhibits strong anisotropy and switches sign as the polarization direction varies relative to the quantum-wire axis, due to interplay among the one-dimensionality, the magnetic ordering, and the strong SOC of the quantum wire., This work was supported by the BK21 Plus Project from the Korean Government and by MINECO (Spain) Grant FIS2011-23526.

The structure of an isolated single vortex and the vortex lattice, and the magnetization in a $d$-wave superconductor are investigated within a phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau (GL) model including the mixture of the $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave and $d_{xy}$-wave symmetry. The isolated single vortex structure in a week magnetic field is studied both numerically and asymptotically. Near the upper critical field $H_{c2}$, the vortex lattice structure and the magnetization are calculated analytically.

We investigate the mesoscopic resistor-capacitor circuit consisting of a quantum dot coupled to spatially separated Majorana fermion modes in a chiral topological superconductor. We find substantially enhanced relaxation resistance due to the nature of Majorana fermions, which are their own anti-particles and composed of particle and hole excitations in the same abundance. Further, if only a single Majorana mode is involved, the zero-frequency relaxation resistance is completely suppressed due to a destructive interference. As a result, the Majorana mode opens an exotic dissipative channel on a superconductor which is typically regarded as dissipationless due to its finite superconducting gap., Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.; Supplemental Material available at http://iff.korea.ac.kr/Opus/ChoiMS14c-Suppl.pdf; References and Suppl. Mat. updated

We investigate the Majorana physics and its effect on the electron transport in the non-topological superconductor(NS)-topological superconductor(TS) double junctions of a ring geometry. We find that, depending on the ratio between the lengths of two topologically different regions and the localization lengths of the Majorana fermions formed between them, two completely different transport mechanisms are working: perfect crossed Andreev reflection (CAR) for the short NS region and perfect normal Andreev reflection for the short TS region. The difference is explained in terms of the topologically distinct properties of subgap states in the NS-TS double junction system, which have not been revealed so far. The exotic dependence of the CAR process on the magnetic flux threading the ring is uncovered and can be used to detect the Majorana fermions., 15 pages, 21 figures

We study the effect of ultrastrong cavity-qubit coupling on the low-lying excitations of a chain of coupled circuit quantum electrodynamic (QED) systems. We show that, in the presence of the onsite ultrastrong coupling, the photon hopping between cavities can be mapped to the Ising interaction between the lowest two levels of individual circuit QED of the chain. Based on our mapping, we predict two nearly degenerate ground states whose wave functions involve maximal entanglement between the macroscopic quantum states of the cavities and the states of qubits and identify that they are mathematically equivalent to Majorana bound states. Further, we devise a scheme for the dispersive measurement of the ground states using an additional resonator attached to one end of the circuit QED chain. Finally, we discuss the effects of disorders and local noises on the coherence of the ground states.

We report nonequilibrium transport measurements of gate-tunable Andreev bound states in a carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to two superconducting leads. In particular, we observe clear features of two types of Kondo ridges, which can be understood in terms of the interplay between the Kondo effect and superconductivity. In the first type (type I), the coupling is strong and the Kondo effect is dominant. Levels of the Andreev bound states display anticrossing in the middle of the ridge. On the other hand, crossing of the two Andreev bound states is shown in the second type (type II) together with the 0-π transition of the Josephson junction. Our scenario is well understood in terms of only a single dimensionless parameter, kBTKminâ¡ /Δ, where TKminâ¡ and Δ are the minimum Kondo temperature of a ridge and the superconducting order parameter, respectively. Our observation is consistent with measurements of the critical current, and is supported by numerical renormalization group calculations. © 2013 American Physical Society., This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (Grants No. 2009-0084606, No. 2012R1A1A2003957, No. 2010-0025880, No. 2011-0012494, and No. 2011-0015895), and by the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science. R. L and J. S. L were supported by MINECO Grants No. FIS2008-00781, No. FIS2011-23526, and No. CSD2007-00042 (CPAN).

We report magnetoresistance data in magnetic semiconductor multilayers, which exhibit a clear step-wise behavior as a function of external field. We attribute this highly non-trivial step-wise behavior to next-nearest-neighbor interlayer exchange coupling. Our microscopic calculation suggests that this next-nearest-neighbor coupling can be as large as 24% of the nearest-neighbor coupling. It is argued that such unusually long-range interaction is made possible by the quasi-one-dimensional nature of the system and by the long Fermi wavelength characteristic of magnetic semiconductors.

Domain walls between superconducting and magnetic regions placed on top of a topological insulator support transport channels for Majorana fermions. We propose to study noise correlations in a Hanbury Brown-Twiss type interferometer and find three signatures of the Majorana nature of the channels. First, the average charge current in the outgoing leads vanishes. Furthermore, we predict an anomalously large shot noise in the output ports for a vanishing average current signal. Adding a quantum point contact to the setup, we find a surprising absence of partition noise which can be traced back to the Majorana nature of the carriers., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures