Temperature effect on quantum tunneling in a Cooper-pair-box coupled to a quantum oscillator is studied by both numerical and analytical calculations. It is found that, in strong coupling regions, coherent tunneling of a Cooper-pair-box can be destroyed by its coupling to a quantum oscillator and the tunneling becomes thermally activated as the temperature rises, leading to failure of the Cooper-pair-box. The transition temperature between the coherent tunneling and thermo-activated hopping is determined and physics analysis based on small polaron theory is also provided.
We study correlated transport in a Josephson junction array for small Josephson energies. In this regime transport is dominated by Cooper-pair hopping, although we observe that quasiparticles can not be neglected. We assume that the energy dissipated by a Cooper-pair is absorbed by the intrinsic impedance of the array. This allows us to formulate explicit Cooper-pair hopping rates without adding any parameters to the system. We show that the current is correlated and crucially, these correlations rely fundamentally on the interplay between the Cooper-pairs and equilibrium quasiparticles.
We discuss the properties of devices of small Josephson junctions in the light of the phase fluctuation theory and the energy band structure, which arises from the delocalization of the phase variable. The theory is applied in the realization of a mesoscopic amplifier, the Bloch oscillating transistor. The device characteristics and comparison with theory and simulations are discussed. The current gain of the device in a stable operating mode has been measured to be as high as 30. Measurements on input impedance and the power gain show that the BOT is an amplifier designed for middle-range imp…
We study a Josephson junction (JJ) in the regime of incoherent Cooper pair tunneling, capacitively coupled to a nonequilibrium noise source. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the JJ are sensitive to the excess voltage fluctuations in the source, and can thus be used for wide-band noise detection. Under weak driving, the odd part of the I-V can be related to the second cumulant of noise, whereas the even part is due to the third cumulant. After calibration, one can measure the Fano factors for the noise source, and get information about the frequency dependence of the noise.
The Cooper pair shuttle is a simple model system that combines features of coherent and incoherent transport. We evaluate the full counting statistics (FCS) of charge transfer via the shuttle in the incoherent regime. We describe two limiting cases when the FCS allows for classical interpretation. Generally, the classical interpretation fails yielding negative and imaginary "probabilities". This signals that superconducting coherence survives even in incoherent regime. We evaluate the current noise in some detail.
Using a quantum noise approach, we discuss the physics of both normal metal and superconducting single electron transistors (SET) coupled to mechanical resonators. Particular attention is paid to the regime where transport occurs via incoherent Cooper-pair tunneling (either via the Josephson quasiparticle (JQP) or double Josephson quasiparticle (DJQP) process). We show that, surprisingly, the back-action of tunneling Cooper pairs (or superconducting quasiparticles) can be used to significantly cool the oscillator. We also discuss the physical origin of negative damping effects in this system, …
We propose two schemes to establish entanglement between two mesoscopic quantum systems through a third mesoscopic quantum system. The first scheme entangles two nano-mechanical oscillators in a non-Gaussian entangled state through a Cooper pair box. Entanglement detection of the nano-mechanical oscillators is equivalent to a teleportation experiment in a mesoscopic setting. The second scheme can entangle two Cooper pair box qubits through a nano-mechanical oscillator in a thermal state without using measurements in the presence of arbitrarily strong decoherence.
Josephson junctions operated in the dynamical Coulomb blockade regime recently gained an significant amount of attention as central building block in concepts to demonstrate the non-Abelian character of Majorana fermions. Its physical properties are strongly affected by the intimate interplay of intrinsic quantum fluctuations and environmentally-induced quantum fluctuations each of which promoting different Cooper pair transport mechanisms at small voltages around zero. To shed light on the detailed transport mechanisms occurring in this type of junction, we performed voltage-biased measuremen…
Open quantum systems are subject to interaction with their surrounding environment. In many applications, at low temperatures, quantum environments fall into two universality classes of models: Caldeira-Leggett oscillator bath models and Prokof'ev-Stamp spin bath models. The two classes are commonly recognized to be distinct and to have strikingly different effects on principal systems, except at weak coupling limits. However, I show here, in contrast, that oscillator bath models can simulate the effect of spin bath models in strong coupling limit of the spin bath. I choose parameters of the o…
We demonstrate that entanglement of two macroscopic nanoelectromechanical resonators -- coupled to each other via a common detector, a tunnel junction -- can be generated by running a current through the device. We introduce a setup that overcomes generic limitations of proposals suggesting to entangle systems via a shared bath. At the heart of the proposal is an Andreev entangler setup, representing an experimentally feasible way of entangling two nanomechanical oscillators. Instead of relying on the coherence of a (fermionic) bath, in the Andreev entangler setup, a split Cooper-pair that coh…
Stuart-Landau limit-cycle oscillators are a paradigm in the study of coherent and incoherent limit cycles. In this work, we generalize the standard Stuart-Landau dimer model to include effects due to an inertia-like term and noise and study its dynamics and stochastic thermodynamics. In the absence of noise (zero-temperature limit), the dynamics show the emergence of a new bistable phase where coherent and incoherent limit cycles coexist. At finite temperatures, we develop a stochastic thermodynamic framework based on the dynamics of a charged particle in a magnetic field to identify physicall…
A theoretical spectroscopic analysis of a microwave driven superconducting charge qubit (Cooper-pair box coupled) to an RLC oscillator model is performed. By treating the oscillator as a probe through the backreaction effect of the qubit on the oscillator circuit, we extract frequency splitting features analogous to the Autler-Townes effect from quantum optics, thereby extending the analogies between superconducting and quantum optical phenomenology. These features are found in a frequency band that avoids the need for high frequency measurement systems and therefore may be of use in qubit cha…
We have studied charge transport in a one-dimensional chain of small Josephson junctions using a single-electron transistor. We observe a crossover from time-correlated tunneling of single electrons to that of Cooper pairs as a function of both magnetic field and current. At relatively high magnetic field, single-electron transport dominates and the tunneling frequency is given by f=I/e, where I is the current through the chain and e is the electron's charge. As the magnetic field is lowered, the frequency gradually shifts to f=I/2e for I>200 fA, indicating Cooper-pair transport. For the param…
Photon emission by tunneling electrons can be encouraged by locating a resonator close to the tunnel junction and applying an appropriate voltage-bias. However, studies of normal metals show that the resonator also affects how the charges flow, facilitating processes in which correlated tunneling of two charges produces one photon. We develop a theory to analyze this kind of behavior in Josephson junctions by deriving an effective Hamiltonian describing processes where two Cooper-pairs generate a single photon. We determine the conditions under which the transport is dominated by incoherent tu…
We study adiabatic charge transfer in a superconducting Cooper pair pump, focusing on the influence of current measurement on coherence. We investigate the limit where the Josephson coupling energy $E_J$ between the various parts of the system is small compared to the Coulomb charging energy $E_C$. In this case the charge transferred in a pumping cycle $Q_P \sim 2e$, the charge of one Cooper pair: the main contribution is due to incoherent Cooper pair tunneling. We are particularly interested in the quantum correction to $Q_P$, which is due to coherent tunneling of pairs across the pump and wh…
In most superconductors the transition to the superconducting state is driven by the binding of electrons into Cooper-pairs. The condensation of these pairs into a single, phase coherent, quantum state takes place concomitantly with their formation at the transition temperature, $T_c$. A different scenario occurs in some disordered, amorphous, superconductors: Instead of a pairing-driven transition, incoherent Cooper pairs first pre-form above $T_c$, causing the opening of a pseudogap, and then, at $T_c$, condense into the phase coherent superconducting state. Such a two-step scenario implies …
We start a series of studies of the excitation of an optical target by quantum light. In this first part, we introduce the problematic and address the first case of interest, that of exciting the quantum harmonic oscillator, corresponding to, e.g., a single-mode passive cavity or a non-interacting bosonic field. We introduce a mapping of the Hilbert space that allows to chart usefully the accessible regions. We then consider the quantum excitation from single photon sources in the form of a two-level system under various regimes of (classical) pumping: incoherent, coherent and in the Mollow tr…
