Search

As a circuit QED architecture, we investigate the photon emission of a Cooper pair splitter composed of two double quantum dots, each coupled to a microwave transmission line. We demonstrate the capability to generate frequency-entangled photon pairs in the left and right transmission lines, specifically a superposition of two photon wavepackets at different frequencies. The frequency entanglement of the two photons arises from the particle-hole coherent superposition (i.e. Andreev bound states) involving the delocalized entangled spin singlet. We also estimate a lower bound for the efficiency of entangled photon-pair generation, accounting for the presence of non-radiative processes such as phonon emissions. Our proposal is realistic and achievable with state-of-the-art techniques in quantum microwave engineering with quantum dots., Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures

Qubits require a compromise between operation speed and coherence. Here, we demonstrate a compromise-free singlet-triplet (ST) qubit, where the qubit couples maximally to the driving field while simultaneously coupling minimally to the dominant noise sources. The qubit is implemented in a crystal-phase defined double-quantum dot in an InAs nanowire. Using a superconducting resonator, we measure the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) gap, the spin-photon coupling strength and the qubit decoherence rate as a function of the in-plane magnetic-field orientation. We demonstrate a spin qubit sweet spot maximizing the dipolar coupling and simultaneously minimizing the decoherence. Our theoretical description postulates phonons as the most likely dominant noise source. The compromise-free sweet spot originates from the SOI suggesting that it is not restricted to this material platform, but might find applications in any material with SOI. These findings pave the way for enhanced engineering of these nanomaterials for next-generation qubit technologies.

Non-collinear magnetic skyrmion lattices provide novel magnonic functionalities due to their topological magnon bands and asymmetric dispersion relations. Magnon excitations with intermediate wavelengths comparable to inter-skyrmion distances are particularly interesting but largely unexplored so far due to experimental challenges. Here, we report the detection of such magnons with wavevectors q $\simeq$ 48 rad/um in the metastable skyrmion lattice phase of the bulk chiral magnet Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ using micro-focused Brillouin light scattering microscopy. Thanks to its high sensitivity and broad bandwidth we resolved various excitation modes of a single skyrmion lattice domain over a wide magnetic field regime. Besides the known modes with dipole character, quantitative comparison of frequencies and spectral weights to theoretical predictions enabled the identification of a quadrupole mode and observation of signatures which we attribute to a decupole and a sextupole mode. Our combined experimental and theoretical work highlights that skyrmionic phases allow for the design of magnonic devices exploiting topological magnon bands.

Graphene moir\'e systems are ideal environments for investigating complex phase diagrams and gaining fundamental insights into the mechanisms underlying exotic states of matter, as they permit controlled manipulation of electronic properties. Magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene (MATTG) has emerged as a key platform to explore moir\'e superconductivity, owing to the robustness of its superconducting order and the displacement-field tunability of its energy bands. Recent measurements strongly suggest that superconductivity in MATTG is unconventional. Here, we report the first direct observation of double-dome superconductivity in MATTG. The temperature, magnetic field, and bias current dependence of the superconductivity of doped holes collectively show that it is significantly suppressed near moir\'e filling $\nu^* = -2.6$, leading to a double dome in the phase diagram within a finite window of the displacement field. The temperature dependence of the normal-state resistance and the $I-V$ curves straddling $\nu^*$ are suggestive of a phase transition and the potentially distinct nature of superconductivity in the two domes. Hartree-Fock calculations incorporating mild strain yield an incommensurate Kekul\'e spiral state whose effective spin polarization peaks in the regime where superconductivity is suppressed in experiments. This allows us to draw conclusions about the normal state as well as the unconventional nature of the superconducting order parameter.

Twisted graphene based moir\'e heterostructures host a flat band at the magic angles where the kinetic energy of the charge carriers is quenched and interaction effects dominate. This results in emergent phases such as superconductors and correlated insulators that are electrostatically tunable. We investigate superconductivity in twisted trilayer graphene (TTG) by integrating it as the weak link in a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The measured current phase relation (CPR) yields a large and tunable kinetic inductance, up to 150 nH per square, of the electron and hole type intrinsic superconductors. We further show that the specific kinetic inductance and the critical current density are universally related via the superconducting coherence length, and extract an upper bound of 200 nm for the coherence length. Our work opens avenues for using graphene-based superconductors as tunable elements in superconducting circuits., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures

In the last decade, graphene has become an exciting platform for electron optical experiments, in many aspects superior to conventional two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs). A major advantage, besides the ultra-large mobilities, is the fine control over the electrostatics, which gives the possibility of realising gap-less and compact p-n interfaces with high precision. The latter host non-trivial states, \eg, snake states in moderate magnetic fields, and serve as building blocks of complex electron interferometers. Thanks to the Dirac spectrum and its non-trivial Berry phase, the internal (valley and sublattice) degrees of freedom, and the possibility to tailor the band structure using proximity effects, such interferometers open up a completely new playground based on novel device architectures. In this review, we introduce the theoretical background of graphene electron optics, fabrication methods used to realise electron-optical devices, and techniques for corresponding numerical simulations. Based on this, we give a comprehensive review of ballistic transport experiments and simple building blocks of electron optical devices both in single and bilayer graphene, highlighting the novel physics that is brought in compared to conventional 2DEGs. After describing the different magnetic field regimes in graphene p-n junctions and nanostructures, we conclude by discussing the state of the art in graphene-based Mach-Zender and Fabry-Perot interferometers., Comment: The authors welcome any comments regarding the content of the review

Gatemon qubits are the electrically tunable cousins of superconducting transmon qubits. In this work, we demonstrate the full coherent control of a gatemon qubit based on hole carriers in a Ge/Si core/shell nanowire, with the longest coherence times in group IV material gatemons to date. The key to these results is a high-quality Josephson junction obtained in a straightforward and reproducible annealing technique. We demonstrate that the transport through the narrow junctions is dominated by only two quantum channels, with transparencies up to unity. This novel qubit platform holds great promise for quantum information applications, not only because it incorporates technologically relevant materials, but also because it provides new opportunities, like an ultrastrong spin-orbit coupling in the few-channel regime of Josephson junctions., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures

In a superconducting weak link, the supercurrent is carried by Andreev bound states (ABSs) formed by the phase-coherent reflection of electrons and their time-reversed partners. A single, highly transmissive ABS can serve as an ideal, compact two-level system, due to a potentially large energy difference to the next ABS. While the coherent manipulation of such Andreev levels qubits (ALQs) has been demonstrated, a long-range coupling between two ALQs, necessary for advanced qubit architectures, has not been achieved, yet. Here, we demonstrate a coherent remote coupling between two ALQs, mediated by a microwave photon in a novel superconducting microwave cavity coupler. The latter hosts two modes with different coupling rates to an external port. This allows us to perform fast readout of each qubit using the strongly coupled mode, while the weakly coupled mode is utilized to mediate the coupling between the qubits. When both qubits are tuned into resonance with the latter mode, we find excitation spectra with avoided-crossings, in very good agreement with the Tavis-Cummings model. Based on this model, we identify highly entangled two-qubit states for which the entanglement is mediated over a distance of six millimeters. This work establishes ALQs as compact and scalable solid-state qubits., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

Dephasing of a charge qubit is usually credited to charge noise in the environment. Here we show that charge noise may not be the limiting factor for the qubit coherence. To this end, we study coherence properties of a crystal-phase defined semiconductor nanowire double quantum dot (DQD) charge qubit strongly coupled to a high-impedance resonator using radio-frequency (RF) reflectometry. Response of this hybrid system is measured both at a charge noise sensitive operation point (with finite DQD detuning) and at an insensitive point (so-called sweet spot with zero detuning). A theoretical model based on Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian matches the experimental results well and yields only a 10 % difference in dephasing rates between the two cases, despite that the sensitivity to detuning charge noise differs by a factor of 5. Therefore the charge noise is not the limiting factor for the coherence in this type of semiconducting nanowire qubits., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures

Superconducting qubits with intrinsic noise protection offer a promising approach to improve the coherence of quantum information. Crucial to such protected qubits is the encoding of the logical quantum states into wavefunctions with disjoint support. Such encoding can be achieved by a Josephson element with an unusual charge-4e supercurrent emerging from the coherent transfer of pairs of Cooper-pairs. In this work, we demonstrate the controlled conversion of a conventional charge-2e dominated to a charge-4e dominated supercurrent in a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) consisting of gate-tunable planar Josephson junctions (JJs). We investigate the ac Josephson effect of the SQUID and measure a dominant photon emission at twice the fundamental Josephson frequency together with a doubling of the number of Shapiro steps, both consistent with the appearance of charge-4e supercurrent. Our results present a step towards novel protected superconducting qubits based on superconductor-semiconductor hybrid materials.

Three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetals have recently gained significant attention, since they possess exotic quantum states. When constructing Josephson junctions utilizing these materials as the weak link, the fractional ac Josephson effect emerges in the presence of a topological supercurrent contribution. We investigate the ac Josephson effect in a Dirac semimetal Cd$_3$As$_2$ nanowire using two complementary methods: by probing the radiation spectrum and by measuring Shapiro patterns. With both techniques, we find that conventional supercurrent dominates at all investigated doping levels and that any potentially present topological contribution falls below our detection threshold. The inclusion of thermal noise in a resistively and capacitively shunted junction (RCSJ) model allows us to reproduce the microwave characteristics of the junction. With this refinement, we explain how weak superconducting features can be masked and provide a framework to account for elevated electronic temperatures present in realistic experimental scenarios.

The Josephson diode (JD) is a non-reciprocal circuit element that supports a larger critical current in one direction compared to the other. This effect has gained a growing interest because of promising applications in superconducting electronic circuits with low power consumption. Some implementations of a JD rely on breaking the inversion symmetry in the material used to realize Josephson junctions (JJs), but two recent theoretical proposals have suggested that the effect can also be engineered by combining two JJs hosting highly transmitting Andreev bound states in a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) at a small, but finite flux bias [1, 2]. We have realized a SQUID with two JJs fabricated in a proximitized InAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). We demonstrate gate control of the diode efficiency from zero up to around 30% at specific flux bias values which comes close to the maximum of approxiomately 40% predicated in Ref. [1]. The key ingredients to the JD effect in the SQUID arrangement is the presence of highly transmitting channels in the JJs, a flux bias and an asymmetry between the two SQUID arms., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures (main text + appendix all in one file)

Tremendous progress in few-qubit quantum processing has been achieved lately using superconducting resonators coupled to gate voltage defined quantum dots. While the strong coupling regime has been demonstrated recently for odd charge parity flopping mode spin qubits, first attempts towards coupling a resonator to even charge parity singlet-triplet spin qubits have resulted only in weak spin-photon coupling strengths. Here, we integrate a zincblende InAs nanowire double quantum dot with strong spin-orbit interaction in a magnetic-field resilient, high-quality resonator. In contrast to conventional strategies, the quantum confinement is achieved using deterministically grown wurtzite tunnel barriers without resorting to electrical gating. Our experiments on even charge parity states and at large magnetic fields, allow to identify the relevant spin states and to measure the spin decoherence rates and spin-photon coupling strengths. Most importantly, we find an anti-crossing between the resonator mode in the single photon limit and a singlet-triplet qubit with an electron spin-photon coupling strength of $g/2\pi=139\pm4$ MHz. Combined with the resonator decay rate $\kappa/2\pi=19.8\pm0.2$ MHz and the qubit dephasing rate $\gamma/2\pi=116\pm7$ MHz, our system achieves the strong coupling regime in which the coherent coupling exceeds qubit and resonator linewidth. These results pave the way towards large-scale quantum system based on singlet-triplet qubits., Comment: Main text: 11 pages, 7 figures Supplementary: 5 pages, 4 figures

High-impedance resonators are a promising contender for realizing long-distance entangling gates between spin qubits. Often, the fabrication of spin qubits relies on the use of gate dielectrics which are detrimental to the quality of the resonator. Here, we investigate loss mechanisms of high-impedance NbTiN resonators in the vicinity of thermally grown SiO\textsubscript{2} and Al\textsubscript{2}O\textsubscript{3} fabricated by atomic layer deposition. We benchmark the resonator performance in elevated magnetic fields and at elevated temperatures and find that the internal quality factors are limited by the coupling between the resonator and two-level systems of the employed oxides. Nonetheless, the internal quality factors of high-impedance resonators exceed $10^3$ in all investigated oxide configurations which implies that the dielectric configuration would not limit the performance of resonators integrated in a spin-qubit device. Because these oxides are commonly used for spin qubit device fabrication, our results allow for straightforward integration of high-impedance resonators into spin-based quantum processors. Hence, these experiments pave the way for large-scale, spin-based quantum computers., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

We report the discovery of a novel skyrmion phase in the multiferroic insulator Cu2OSeO3 for magnetic fields below the equilibrium skyrmion pocket. This phase can be accessed by exciting the sample out of equilibrium with near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond laser pulses but can not be reached by any conventional field cooling protocol. From the strong wavelength dependence of the photocreation process and via spin dynamics simulations, we identify the magnetoelastic effect as the most likely photocreation mechanism. This effect results in a transient modification of the magnetic interaction extending the equilibrium skyrmion pocket to lower magnetic fields. Once created, the skyrmions rearrange and remain stable over a long time, reaching minutes. The presented results are relevant for designing high-efficiency non-volatile data storage based on magnetic skyrmions., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

When a topological insulator is incorporated into a Josephson junction, the system is predicted to reveal the fractional Josephson effect with a 4$\pi$-periodic current-phase relation. Here, we report the measurement of a $4\pi$-periodic switching current through an asymmetric SQUID, formed by the higher-order topological insulator WTe$_2$. Contrary to the established opinion, we show that a high asymmetry in critical current and negligible loop inductance are not sufficient by themselves to reliably measure the current-phase relation. Instead, we find that our measurement is heavily influenced by additional inductances originating from the self-formed PdTe$_{\text{x}}$ inside the junction. We therefore develop a method to numerically recover the current-phase relation of the system and find the $1.5\,\mu \text{m}$ long junction to be best described in the short ballistic limit. Our results highlight the complexity of subtle inductance effects that can give rise to misleading topological signatures in transport measurements., Comment: As accepted by Nano Letters, includes main text (7 pages, 3 figures) and supplementary information (16 pages, 7 figures)

Spin qubits in germanium are a promising contender for scalable quantum computers. Reading out of the spin and charge configuration of quantum dots formed in Ge/Si core/shell nanowires is typically performed by measuring the current through the nanowire. Here, we demonstrate a more versatile approach on investigating the charge configuration of these quantum dots. We employ a high-impedance, magnetic-field resilient superconducting resonator based on NbTiN and couple it to a double quantum dot in a Ge/Si nanowire. This allows us to dispersively detect charging effects, even in the regime where the nanowire is fully pinched off and no direct current is present. Furthermore, by increasing the electro-chemical potential far beyond the nanowire pinch-off, we observe indications for depleting the last hole in the quantum dot by using the second quantum dot as a charge sensor. This work opens the door for dispersive readout and future spin-photon coupling in this system.

Superconductivity in van der Waals materials, such as NbSe$_{2}$ and TaS$_{2}$, is fundamentally novel due to the effects of dimensionality, crystal symmetries, and strong spin-orbit coupling. In this work we perform tunnel spectroscopy on NbSe$_{2}$ by utilizing MoS$_{2}$ or hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) as a tunnel barrier. We observe subgap excitations and probe their origin by studying various heterostructure designs. We show that the edge of NbSe$_{2}$ hosts many defect states, which strongly couple to the superconductor and form Andreev bound states. Furthermore, by isolating the NbSe$_{2}$ edge we show that the subgap states are ubiquitous in MoS$_{2}$ tunnel barriers, but absent in hBN tunnel barriers, suggesting defects in MoS$_{2}$ as their origin. Their magnetic nature reveals a singlet or a doublet type ground state and based on nearly vanishing g-factors or avoided-crossing of subgap excitations we highlight the role of strong spin-orbit coupling., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Includes Supporting Information

Recently, vision transformers were shown to be capable of outperforming convolutional neural networks when pretrained on sufficient amounts of data. In comparison to convolutional neural networks, vision transformers have a weaker inductive bias and therefore allow a more flexible feature detection. Due to their promising feature detection, this work explores vision transformers for tumor detection in digital pathology whole slide images in four tissue types, and for tissue type identification. We compared the patch-wise classification performance of the vision transformer DeiT-Tiny to the state-of-the-art convolutional neural network ResNet18. Due to the sparse availability of annotated whole slide images, we further compared both models pretrained on large amounts of unlabeled whole-slide images using state-of-the-art self-supervised approaches. The results show that the vision transformer performed slightly better than the ResNet18 for three of four tissue types for tumor detection while the ResNet18 performed slightly better for the remaining tasks. The aggregated predictions of both models on slide level were correlated, indicating that the models captured similar imaging features. All together, the vision transformer models performed on par with the ResNet18 while requiring more effort to train. In order to surpass the performance of convolutional neural networks, vision transformers might require more challenging tasks to benefit from their weak inductive bias., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for workshop T4Vision (CVPR 2022)

Highly transparent superconducting contacts to a topological insulator (TI) remain a persistent challenge on the route to engineer topological superconductivity. Recently, the higher-order TI WTe$_2$ was shown to turn superconducting when placed on palladium (Pd) bottom contacts, demonstrating a promising material system in pursuing this goal. Here, we report the diffusion of Pd into WTe$_2$ and the formation of superconducting PdTe$_x$ as the origin of observed superconductivity. We find an atomically sharp interface in vertical direction to the van der Waals layers between the diffusion crystal and its host crystal, forming state-of-the-art superconducting contacts to a TI. The diffusion is discovered to be non-uniform along the width of the WTe$_2$ crystal, with a greater extend along the edges compared to the bulk. The potential of this contacting method is highlighted in transport measurements on Josephson junctions by employing external superconducting leads., Comment: As accepted to Physical Review Materials, includes main text (8 pages, 4 figures) and supplemental material (8 pages, 2 figures)

Correlations are fundamental in describing many body systems - not only in natural sciences. However, in experiments, correlations are notoriously difficult to assess on the microscopic scale, especially for electron spins. Here, we demonstrate a direct measurement of the spin cross-correlations between the currents of a Cooper pair splitter, an electronic device that emits electrons originating from Cooper pairs in a superconductor. While it is firmly established theoretically that these electron pairs form maximally spin-entangled singlet states with opposite spin projections, no spin correlation experiments have been demonstrated so far. We use ferromagnetic sidegates, compatible with superconducting electronic structures, to individually spin polarize the transmissions of two quantum dots fabricated in the two electronic paths, which act as tunable spin filters. The signals are detected in standard transport and in highly sensitive transconductance experiments. We find that the spin-cross correlation is negative, compatible with spin singlet emission, and deviates from the ideal value mostly due to a finite overlap of the Zeeman split quantum dot states. Our results demonstrate a new route to perform spin auto- and cross correlation experiments in nanometer scaled electronic devices, especially suitable for those relying on magnetic field sensitive superconducting elements, like unconventional, triplet or topologically non-trivial superconductors, or to perform Bell tests with massive particles, like electrons.

Hybridization is a very fundamental quantum mechanical phenomenon, with the text book example of binding two hydrogen atoms in a hydrogen molecule. In semiconductor physics, a quantum dot (QD) can be considered as an artificial atom, with two coupled QDs forming a molecular state, and two electrons on a single QD the equivalent of a helium atom. Here we report tunnel spectroscopy experiments illustrating the hybridization of another type of discrete quantum states, namely of superconducting subgap states that form in segments of a semiconducting nanowire in contact with superconducting reservoirs. We show and explain a collection of intermediate states found in the process of merging individual bound states, hybridizing with a central QD and eventually coherently linking the reservoirs. These results may serve as a guide in future Majorana fusion experiments and explain a large variety of recent bound state experiments.

Exotic magnetic textures emerging from the subtle interplay between thermodynamic and topological fluctuation have attracted intense interest due to their potential applications in spintronic devices. Recent advances in electron microscopy have enabled the imaging of random photo-generated individual skyrmions. However, their deterministic and dynamical manipulation is hampered by the chaotic nature of such fluctuations and the intrinsically irreversible switching between different minima in the magnetic energy landscape. Here, we demonstrate a method to coherently control the rotation of a skyrmion crystal by discrete amounts at speeds which are much faster than previously observed. By employing circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses with an energy below the bandgap of the Mott insulator Cu2OSeO3, we excite a collective magnon mode via the inverse Faraday effect. This triggers coherent magnetic oscillations that directly control the rotation of a skyrmion crystal imaged by cryo-Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy. The manipulation of topological order via ultrafast laser pulses shown here can be used to engineer fast spin-based logical devices.

Scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) microscopy is a magnetic imaging technique combining high-field sensitivity with nanometer-scale spatial resolution. State-of-the-art SQUID-on-tip probes are now playing an important role in mapping correlation phenomena, such as superconductivity and magnetism, which have recently been observed in two-dimensional van der Waals materials. Here, we demonstrate a scanning probe that combines the magnetic and thermal imaging provided by an on-tip SQUID with the tip-sample distance control and topographic contrast of a non-contact atomic force microscope (AFM). We pattern the nanometer-scale SQUID, including its weak-link Josephson junctions, via focused ion beam milling at the apex of a cantilever coated with Nb, yielding a sensor with an effective diameter of 365 nm, field sensitivity of 9.5 $\text{nT}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ and thermal sensitivity of 620 $\text{nK}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$, operating in magnetic fields up to 1.0 T. The resulting SQUID-on-lever is a robust AFM-like scanning probe that expands the reach of sensitive nanometer-scale magnetic and thermal imaging beyond what is currently possible., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 6-page supplementary information

Recent progress in the development of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) has delivered ex-cellent performance, and their increased adoption has had a great impact on a range of applications. One of the key characteristic of SNSPDs is their detection rate, which is typically higher than other types of free-running single-photondetectors. The maximum achievable rate is limited by the detector recovery time after a detection, which itself is linked to the superconducting material properties and to the geometry of the meandered SNSPD. Arrays of detectors biased individually can be used to solve this issue, but this approach significantly increases both the thermal load in the cryo-stat and the need for time processing of the many signals, and this scales unfavorably with a large number of detectors. One potential scalable approach to increase the detection rate of individual detectors further is based on parallelizing smaller meander sections. In this way, a single detection temporarily disables only one subsection of the whole active area, thereby leaving the overall detection efficiency mostly unaffected. In practice however, cross-talk between parallel nanowires typically leads to latching, which prevents high detection rates. Here we show how this problem can be avoided through a careful design of the whole SNSPD structure. Using the same electronic readout as with conventional SNSPDs and a single coaxial line, we demonstrate detection rates over 200 MHz without any latching, and a fibre-coupled SDE as high as 77%, and more than 50% average SDE per photon at 50 MHz detection rate under continuous wave illumination.