Quantum interference in coherent transport through single molecular rings may provide a mechanism to control current in molecular electronics. We investigate its applicability by using a single-particle Green function method combined with ab initio electronic structure calculations. We find that the quantum interference effect (QIE) depends strongly on the interaction between molecular pi states and contact sigma states. It is absent in small molecular rings with Au leads, such as benzene, due to strong pi-sigma hybridization, while it is preserved in large rings, such as [18]annulene, which then could be used to realize QIE transistors.
Electronic analogues of optical interferences have been used to investigate quantum phenomena in condensed matter. However, the most sensitive, Sagnac optical interference, has not been realized in the electronic domain. We report electronic Sagnac interference using ultraclean carbon nanotubes. We show that Sagnac interference manifests as conductance oscillations versus gate voltage. Compared to Fabry-Perot conductance oscillations, Sagnac oscillations have a larger period and are more robust to temperature. Using nanotubes of known structure, we show that Sagnac oscillations are a probe of …
Quantum interference can profoundly affect charge transport in single molecules, but experiments can usually measure only the conductance at the Fermi energy. Because in general the most pronounced features of the quantum interference are not located at the Fermi energy, it is highly desirable to probe charge transport in a broader energy range. Here by the method of electrochemical gating, we measure the conductance and map the transmission functions of single molecules at and around the Fermi energy, and study signatures associated with constructive and destructive interference. With the ele…
We consider quantum interference effects in carrier and photocurrent excitation in graphene using coherent electromagnetic field components at frequencies $ω$ and $2ω$. The response of the material at the fundamental frequency $ω$ is presented, and it is shown that one-photon absorption at $ω$ interferes with stimulated electronic Raman scattering (combined $2ω$ absorption and $ω$ emission) to result in a net contribution to the current injection. This interference occurs with a net energy absorption of $\hbarω$ and exists in addition to the previously studied interference occurring with a net…
The coexistence of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions (SOIs) in semiconductor quantum wells leads to an anisotropic effective field coupled to carriers' spins. We demonstrate a gate-controlled anisotropy in Aharonov-Casher (AC) spin interferometry experiments with InGaAs mesoscopic rings by using an in-plane magnetic field as a probe. Supported by a perturbation-theory approach, we find that the Rashba SOI strength controls the AC resistance anisotropy via spin dynamic and geometric phases and establish ways to manipulate them by employing electric and magnetic tunings. Moreover, a…
Recent observations of destructive quantum interference in single-molecule junctions confirm the role played by quantum effects in the electronic conductance properties of molecular systems. We show here that the destructive interference can be turned ON or OFF within the same molecular system by mechanically controlling its conformation. Using a combination of ab-initio calculations and single-molecule conductance measurements, we demonstrate the existence of a quasi-periodic destructive quantum interference pattern along the breaking traces of π-π stacked molecular dimers. The detection of t…
Two distinct types of magnetoresistance oscillations are observed in two electronic Fabry-Perot interferometers of different sizes in the integer quantum Hall regime. Measuring these oscillations as a function of magnetic field and gate voltages, we observe three signatures that distinguish the two types. The oscillations observed in a 2.0 square micron device are understood to arise from the Coulomb blockade mechanism, and those observed in an 18 square micron device from the Aharonov-Bohm mechanism. This work clarifies, provides ways to distinguish, and demonstrates control over, these disti…
This work explores different mechanisms that induce thermal rectification in the nanoscale. The presence of interacting energy channels combined with simple asymmetries is sufficient for promoting the desired behavior. We use simple quantum dot configurations, identifying the basic properties that enhance rectification for each case: the size of a quantum dot state space (which suggests the use of scaled up systems with many interacting channels), tunneling asymmetries due to coherent tunneling in a double quantum dot, or quantum interference in a triangular triple quantum dot. An efficient an…
The ability to detect and distinguish quantum interference signatures is important for both fundamental research and for the realization of devices including electron resonators, interferometers and interference-based spin filters. Consistent with the principles of subwavelength optics, the wave nature of electrons can give rise to various types of interference effects, such as Fabry-Pérot resonances, Fano resonances and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Quantum-interference conductance oscillations have indeed been predicted for multiwall carbon nanotube shuttles and telescopes, and arise from atomic…
We study all-carbon-hydrogen molecular transistors where zigzag graphene nanoribbons play the role of three metallic electrodes connected to a ring-shaped 18-annulene molecule. Using the nonequilibrium Green function formalism combined with density functional theory, recently extended to multiterminal devices, we show that the proposed nanostructures exhibit exponentially small transmission when the source and drain electrodes are attached in a configuration that ensures destructive interference of electron paths around the ring. The third electrode, functioning either as an attached infinite-…
We perform electronic structure and quantum transport studies of dangling bond loops created on H-passivated Si(100) surfaces and connected to carbon nanoribbon leads. We model loops with straight and zigzag topologies as well as with varying lenght with an efficient density-functional based tight-binding electronic structure approach (DFTB) . Varying the length of the loop or the lead coupling position we induce the drastic change in the transmission due to the electron interference. Depending if the constructive or destructive interference within the loop takes place we can noticeably change…
We show experimentally how quantum interference can be produced using an integrated quantum system comprising an arch-shaped short quantum wire (or quantum point contact, QPC) of 1D electrons and a reflector forming an electronic cavity. On tuning the coupling between the QPC and the electronic cavity, fine oscillations are observed when the arch QPC is operated in the quasi-1D regime. These oscillations correspond to interference between the 1D states and a state which is similar to the Fabry-Perot state and suppressed by a small transverse magnetic field of 60mT. Tuning the reflector, we fin…
Quantum interference has dramatic effects on electronic transport through nanotube contacts. In optimal configuration the intertube conductance can approach that of a perfect nanotube ($4e^2/h$). The maximum conductance increases rapidly with the contact length up to 10 nm, beyond which it exhibits long wavelength oscillations. This is attributed to the resonant cavity-like interference phenomena in the contact region. For two concentric nanotubes symmetry breaking reduces the maximum intertube conductance from $4e^2/h$ to $2e^2/h$. The phenomena discussed here can serve as a foundation for bu…
Graphene matter in a strong magnetic field, realizing one-dimensional quantum Hall channels, provides a unique platform for studying electron interference. Here, using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism along with the tight-binding model, we investigate the quantum Hall (QH) effects in unipolar and bipolar monolayer-bilayer graphene (MLG-BLG) junctions. We find that a Hall bar made of an armchair MLG-BLG junction in the bipolar regime results in valley-polarized edge-channel interferences and can operate a fully tunable Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer device. Investigation of the bar-width and m…
We analyze the STM current through electronic resonances on a substrate as a function of tip-surface distance. We show that when the tip approaches the surface a Fano hybridization can occur between the electronic resonance on the substrate and the continuum of conduction states in the STM tip. A maximum of the density of states of the electronic resonance at some energy can then lead to a dip of the STM signal $dI/dV$. Resonances in graphene, known as mid gap states, are good candidates to produce this type of Fano interference. The mid gap states can be produced by local defects or adsorbate…
We study the visibility of Aharonov-Bohm interference in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) in the integer quantum Hall regime. The visibility is controlled by the filling factor $ν$ and is observed only between $ν\approx 2.0$ and 1.0, with an unexpected maximum near $ν=1.5$. Three energy scales extracted from the temperature and voltage dependences of the visibility change in a very similar way with the filling factor, indicating that the different aspects of the interference depend sensitively on the local structure of the compressible and incompressible strips forming the quant…
We analyze quantum interference and decoherence effects in single-molecule junctions both experimentally and theoretically by means of the mechanically controlled break junction technique and density-functional theory. We consider the case where interference is provided by overlapping quasi-degenerate states. Decoherence mechanisms arising from the electronic-vibrational coupling strongly affect the electrical current flowing through a single-molecule contact and can be controlled by temperature variation. Our findings underline the all-important relevance of vibrations for understanding charg…
Quantum interference effects and decoherence mechanisms in single-molecule junctions are analyzed employing a nonequilibrium Green's function approach. Electrons tunneling through quasi-degenerate states of a nanoscale molecular junction exhibit interference effects. We show that electronic-vibrational coupling, inherent to any molecular junction, strongly quenches such interference effects. As a result, the electrical current can be significantly larger than without electronic-vibrational coupling. The analysis reveals that the quenching of quantum interference is particularly pronounced if t…
Linear in the wave-vector terms of an electron Hamiltonian play an important role in topological insulators and spintronic devices. Here we demonstrate how an external electric field controls the magnitude of a linear-in-K term in the exciton Hamiltonian in wide GaAs quantum wells. The dependence of this term on the applied field in a high quality sample was studied by means of the differential reflection spectroscopy. An excellent agreement between the experimental data and the results of calculations using semi-classical non-local dielectric response model confirms the validity of the method…
We present a general analytical formula and an ab initio study of quantum interference in multi-branch molecules. Ab initio calculations are used to investigate quantum interference in a benzene-1,2-dithiolate (BDT) molecule sandwiched between gold electrodes and through oligoynes of various lengths. We show that when a point charge is located in the plane of a BDT molecule and its position varied, the electrical conductance exhibits a clear interference effect, whereas when the charge approaches a BDT molecule along a line normal to the plane of the molecule and passing through the centre of …
We investigate electronic transport property of a graphene monolayer covered by a graphene nanoribbon. We demonstrate that electronic transmission of a monolayer can be reduced when covered by a nanoribbon. The transmission reduction occurs at different energies determined by the width of nanoribbon. We explain the transmission reduction by using interference between wavefunctions in the monolayer and the nanoribbon. Furthermore, we show the transmission reduction of a monolayer is combinable when covered by more than one nanoribbon and propose a concept of "combination of control" for nano-ap…
In a recent paper Liang {\it et al.} [Nature {\bf 411}, 665 (2001)] showed experimentally, that metallic nanotubes, strongly coupled to external electrodes, may act as coherent molecular waveguides for electronic transport. The experimental results were supported by theoretical analysis based on the scattering matrix approach. In this paper we analyze theoretically this problem using a real-space approach, which makes it possible to control quality of interface contacts. Electronic structure of the nanotube is taken into account within the tight-binding model. External electrodes and the centr…
We performed studies of coherent electronic transport through a single walled carbon nanotube. In the calculations multiple scattering on the contacts and interference processes were taken into account. Conductance is a composition of contributions from different channels. We studied also spin--dependent transport in the system with ferromagnetic electrodes. The magnetoresistance is large and shows large oscillations, it can be even negative in some cases.
We propose an entanglement detector composed of two quantum spin Hall insulators and a side gate deposited on one of the edge channels. For an ac gate voltage, the differential noise contributed from the entangled electron pairs exhibits the nontrivial step structures, from which the spin entanglement concurrence can be easily obtained. The possible spin dephasing effects in the quantum spin Hall insulators are also included.
In this work, we present and evaluate a (111)-rotated eight-band $\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p}$ Hamiltonian for the zinc-blende crystal lattice to investigate the electronic properties of site-controlled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown along the [111] direction. We derive the rotated Hamiltonian including strain and piezoelectric potentials. In combination with our previously formulated (111)-oriented continuum elasticity model, we employ this approach to investigate the electronic properties of a realistic site-controlled (111)-grown InGaAs quantum dot. We combine these studies with an evaluation…
Conductance through a system consisting of a wire with side-attached quantum dots is calculated. Such geometry of the device allows to study the coexistence of quantum interference, electron correlations and their influence on conductance. We underline the differences between "classical" Fano resonance in which the resonant channel is of single-particle nature and "many-body" Fano resonance with the resonant channel formed by Kondo effect. The influence of electron-electron interactions on the Fano resonance shape is also analyzed.
A hallmark of wave-matter duality is the emergence of quantum-interference phenomena when an electronic transition follows different trajectories. Such interference results in asymmetric absorption lines such as Fano resonances, and gives rise to secondary effects like electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) when multiple optical transitions are pumped. Few solid-state systems show quantum interference and EIT, with quantum-well intersubband transitions in the IR offering the most promising avenue to date to devices exploiting optical gain without inversion. Quantum interference is usua…
The line shape of the double-resonant $2D$ Raman mode in bilayer graphene is often considered to be characteristic for a certain laser excitation energy. Here, in a joint experimental and theoretical study, we analyze the dependence of the double-resonant Raman scattering processes in bilayer graphene on the electronic broadening parameter $γ$. We demonstrate that the ratio between symmetric and anti-symmetric scattering processes sensitively depends on the lifetime of the electronic states, explaining the experimentally observed variation of the complex $2D$-mode line shape.
We investigate theoretically the behavior of the current oscillations in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) as a function of its source bias. Recently, The MZI interference visibility showed an unexplained lobe pattern behavior with a peculiar phase rigidity. Moreover, the effect did not depend on the MZI paths difference. We argue that these effects may be a new many-body manifestation of particle-wave duality of quantum mechanics. When biasing the interferometer sources beyond the linear response regime, quantum shot-noise (a particle phenomena) must affect the interference patt…
We have realized nanometer size constrictions in ballistic graphene nanoribbons grown on sidewalls of SiC mesa structures. The high quality of our devices allows the observation of a number of electronic quantum interference phenomena. The transmissions of Fabry-Perot like resonances were probed by in-situ transport measurements at various temperatures. The energies of the resonances are determined by the size of the constrictions which can be controlled precisely using STM lithography. The temperature and size dependence of the measured conductances are in quantitative agreement with tight-bi…
The recent development of dynamic single-electron sources makes it possible to observe and manipulate the quantum properties of individual charge carriers in mesoscopic circuits. Here, we investigate multi-particle effects in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer driven by dynamic voltage pulses. To this end, we employ a Floquet scattering formalism to evaluate the interference current and the visibility in the outputs of the interferometer. An injected multi-particle state can be described by its first-order correlation function, which we decompose into a sum of elementary correlation fun…
We investigate the electronic transport properties of a ferromagnet/normal/ferromagnet junction on the surface of a topological insulator with a gate voltage exerted on the normal segment. It is found that the conductance oscillates with the width of normal segment and gate voltage, and the maximum of conductance gradually decreases while the minimum of conductance approaches zero as the width increases. The conductance can be controlled by tuning the gate voltage like a spin field-effect transistor. It is found that the magnetoresistance ratio can be very large, and can also be negative owing…
We theoretically study electron interference in a ballistic electronic interferometer capacitively coupled to a quantum dot. The visibility of the interference is reduced when the dot has degenerate ground states with different excess charges. The degree of the reduction depends on system parameters such as the strength of the capacitive coupling, and the dependence is analyzed in the regime where the dwell time of electrons in the dot is much longer than the electron flight time through the interferometry region coupled to the dot. The result is consistent with recent experimental data.
Complementarity, the incomplete nature of a quantum measurement - a core concept in quantum mechanics - stems from the choice of the measurement apparatus. The notion of complementarity is closely related to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, but the exact relation between the two remains a source of debate. For example, knowledge of a particle's position in a double slit interference experiment will quench its wave-like nature and, vice versa, observing the wave property via interference implies lack of knowledge of the particle's path. A canonical system for exploring complementarity is the…
A propagation matrix method is proposed to investigate spin-resolved electronic transport in single finger-gate (SFG) and double finger-gate (DFG) controlled split-gate quantum devices. We show how the interplay of the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit (SO) interactions as well as a Zeeman (Z) field influences the quantum transport characteristics. Without the Dresselhaus effect, the conductance reveals a mirror symmetry between the hole-like and the electron-like quasi-bound states in the SO-Z gap energy regime in the SFG system, but not for the DFG system. For the Dresselhaus interaction, we…
A series of measurements using a technique called electrostatic-manipulation scanning tunneling microscopy (EM-STM) were performed on a highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite surface. The electrostatic interaction between the STM tip and the sample can be tuned to produce both reversible and irreversible large-scale movement of the graphite surface. Under this influence, atomic-resolution STM images reveal that a continuous electronic transition from triangular symmetry, where only alternate atoms are imaged, to hexagonal symmetry can be systematically controlled. Density functional theory (DFT) c…
In situ control of spin-orbit coupling in coherent transport using a clean GaAs/AlGaAs 2DEG is realized, leading to a gate-tunable crossover from weak localization to antilocalization. The necessary theory of 2D magnetotransport in the presence of spin-orbit coupling beyond the diffusive approximation is developed and used to analyze experimental data. With this theory the Rashba contribution and linear and cubic Dresselhaus contributions to spin-orbit coupling are separately estimated, allowing the angular dependence of spin-orbit precession to be extracted at various gate voltages.
We have observed asymmetric Fano resonances in the conductance of a single electron transistor resulting from interference between a resonant and a nonresonant path through the system. The resonant component shows all the features typical of quantum dots, but the origin of the non-resonant path is unclear. A unique feature of this experimental system, compared to others that show Fano line shapes, is that changing the voltages on various gates allows one to alter the interference between the two paths.
Quasiparticle interference (QPI) of the electronic states has been widely applied in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to analyze the electronic band structure of materials. Single-defect induced QPI reveals defect-dependent interaction between a single atomic defect and electronic states, which deserves special attention. Due to the weak signal of single-defect-induced QPI, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is relatively low in a standard two-dimensional QPI measurement. In this paper, we introduce a projective quasiparticle interference (PQPI) method, in which a one-dimensional measurement i…
We investigate the temperature and voltage dependence of the quantum interference in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer using edge channels in the integer quantum-Hall-regime. The amplitude of the interference fringes is significantly smaller than expected from theory; nevertheless the functional dependence of the visibility on temperature and bias voltage agrees very well with theoretical predictions. Superimposed on the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations, a conductance oscillation with six times smaller period is observed. The latter depends only on gate voltage and not on the AB-phase, …
We describe how to prepare an electrically levitated nanodiamond in a superposition of orientations via microwave driving of a single embedded nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. Suitably aligning the magnetic field with the NV center can serve to reach the regime of ultrastrong coupling between the NV and the diamond rotation, enabling single-spin control of the particle's three-dimensional orientation. We derive the effective spin-oscillator Hamiltonian for small amplitude rotation about the equilibrium configuration and develop a protocol to create and observe quantum superpositions of the partic…
Exotic electronic states are realized in novel quantum materials. This field is revolutionized by the topological classification of materials. Such compounds necessarily host unique states on their boundaries. Scanning tunneling microscopy studies of these surface states have provided a wealth of spectroscopic characterization, with the successful cooperation of ab initio calculations. The method of quasiparticle interference imaging proves to be particularly useful for probing the dispersion relation of the surface bands. Herein, how a variety of additional fundamental electronic properties c…
Molecular electronics offers unique scientific and technological possibilities, resulting from both the nanometre scale of the devices and their reproducible chemical complexity. Two fundamental yet different effects, with no classical analogue, have been demonstrated experimentally in single-molecule junctions: quantum interference due to competing electron transport pathways, and the Kondo effect due to entanglement from strong electronic interactions. Here we unify these phenomena, showing that transport through a spin-degenerate molecule can be either enhanced or blocked by Kondo correlati…
We compute the interference pattern of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer operating in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Our theoretical proposal is inspired by a remarkable experiment on edge states in the Integer Quantum Hall effect (IQHE). The Luttinger liquid model is solved via two independent methods: refermionization at nu=1/2 and the Bethe Ansatz solution available for Laughlin fractions. The current differs strongly from that of single electrons in the strong backscattering regime. The Fano factor is periodic in the flux, and it exhibits a sharp transition from sub-Poissonian (charge e/2…
Domain walls, topological defects that define the frontier between regions of different stacking in multilayer graphene, have proved to host exciting physics. The ability of tuning these topological defects in-situ in an electronic transport experiment brings a wealth of possibilities in terms of fundamental understanding of domain walls as well as for electronic applications. Here, we demonstrate through a MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) actuator and magnetoresistance measurements the effect of domain walls in multilayer graphene quantum Hall effect. Reversible and controlled uniaxial s…
Ultrafast time-resolved x-ray scattering is an emerging approach to image the dynamical evolution of the electronic charge distribution during complex chemical and biological processes in real-space and real-time. Recently, the differences between semiclassical and quantum-electrodynamical (QED) theory of light-matter interaction for scattering of ultrashort x-ray pulses from the electronic wavepacket were formally demonstrated and visually illustrated by scattering patterns calculated for an electronic wavepacket in atomic hydrogen [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., {\bf 109}, 11636 (2012)]. In …
We investigate the electrical transport properties of two hydrogen tautomer configurations of phthalocyanine (H2Pc) connected to cumulene and gold leads. Hydrogen tautomerization affects the electronic state of H2Pc by switching the character of molecular orbitals with the same symmetry close to the Fermi level. The near degeneracy between the HOMO and HOMO-1 leads to pronounced interference effects, causing a large change in current for the two tautomer configuratons, especially in the low-bias regime. Two types of planar junctions are considered: cumulene-H2Pc-cumulene and gold-H2Pc-gold. Bo…
Interference of double moire patterns of graphene (G) encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride (BN) can alter the electronic structure features near the primary/secondary Dirac points and the electron-hole symmetry introduced by a single G/BN moire pattern depending on the relative stacking arrangements of the top/bottom BN layers. We show that strong interference effects are found in nearly aligned BN/G/BN and BN/G/NB and obtain the evolution of the associated density of states as a function of moire superlattice twist angles. For equal moire periods and commensurate patterns with $Δϕ= 0^{\cir…
Destructive quantum interference in single molecule electronics is an intriguing phe- nomenon; however, distinguishing quantum interference effects from generically low transmission is not trivial. In this paper, we discuss how quantum interference ef- fects in the transmission lead to either low current or a particular line shape in current-voltage curves, depending on the position of the interference feature. Sec- ondly, we consider how inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy can be used to probe the presence of an interference feature by identifying vibrational modes that are se- lectivel…
Interference effects in finite sections of one-dimensional moiré crystals are investigated using a Landauer-Büttiker formalism within the tight-binding approximation. We explain interlayer transport in double-wall carbon nanotubes and design a predictive model. Wave function interference is visible at the mesoscale: in the strong coupling regime, as a periodic modulation of quantum conductance and emergent localized states; in the localized-insulating regime, as a suppression of interlayer transport, and oscillations of the density of states. These results could be exploited to design quantum …
We show how a new quantum property, a geometric phase, associated with scattering states can be exhibited in nanoscale electronic devices. We propose an experiment to use interference to directly measure the effect of the new geometric phase. The setup involves a double path interferometer, adapted from that used to measure the phase evolution of electrons as they traverse a quantum dot (QD). Gate voltages on the QD could be varied cyclically and adiabatically, in a manner similar to that used to observe quantum adiabatic charge pumping. The interference due to the geometric phase results in o…
The quantum coherence of electronic quasiparticles underpins many of the emerging transport properties of conductors at small scales. Novel electronic implementations of quantum optics devices are now available with perspectives such as 'flying' qubit manipulations. However, electronic quantum interferences in conductors remained up to now limited to propagation paths shorter than $30\,μ$m, independently of the material. Here we demonstrate strong electronic quantum interferences after a propagation along two $0.1\,$mm long pathways in a circuit. Interferences of visibility as high as $80\%$ a…
We look for manifestations of quantum interference effects in the Seebeck coefficient of a molecular junction, when the electronic conductance exhibits pronounced destructive interference features due to the presence of quasi-degenerate electronic states which differ in their spatial symmetry. We perform our analysis by considering three separate limits for electron transport: coherent, fully dephased, and suffering inelastic scattering with molecular vibrations. We find that while the conductance displays strong signatures of the underling transport mechanisms: destructive quantum interferenc…
Electronic transport through a quantum dot strongly coupled to electrodes is studied within a model with two conduction channels. It is shown that multiple scattering and interference of transmitted waves through both channels lead to Fano resonance associated with Kondo resonance. Interference effects are also pronouncedly seen in transport through the Aharonov-Bohm ring with the Kondo dot, where the current characteristics continuously evolve with the magnetic flux.
Most experimental studies to date of multilayer epitaxial graphene on C-face SiC have indicated that the electronic states of different layers are decoupled as a consequence of rotational stacking. We have measured the third order nonlinear tensor in epitaxial graphene as a novel approach to probe interlayer electronic coupling, by studying THz emission from coherently controlled photocurrents as a function of the optical pump and THz beam polarizations. We find that the polarization dependence of the coherently controlled THz emission expected from perfectly uncoupled layers, i.e. a single gr…
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.
