We propose an experiment to observe interference of a single electron as it is transported along two parallel quasi-one-dimensional channels trapped in a single minimum of a travelling periodic electric field. The experimental device is a modification of the surface acoustic wave (SAW) based quantum processor. Interference is achieved by creating a superposition of spatial wavefunctions between the two channels and inducing a relative phase shift via either a transverse electric field or a magnetic field. The interference can be used to estimate the decoherence time of an electron in this type of solid-state device.
Calculations of Nonlinear Wave-Packet Interferometry Signals in the Pump-Probe Limit as Tests for Vibrational Control over Electronic Excitation Transfer
This paper descrives the first experimental evidence of antimatter-wave interference, a process at the heart of Quantum Physics and its interpretation. For the case of ordinary matter particles, interference phenomena have been observed in a variety of cases, ranging to electrons up to complex molecules. Here I present the first demonstration of single-positrons quantum interference.
Complex molecules are intriguing objects at the interface between quantum and classical phenomena. Compared to the electrons, neutrons, or atoms studied in earlier matter-wave experiments, they feature a much more complicated internal structure, but can still behave as quantum objects in their center-of-mass motion. Molecules may involve a large number of vibrational modes and highly excited rotational states, they can emit thermal photons, electrons, or even atoms, and they exhibit large cross sections for collisional interactions with residual background gases. This makes them ideal candidat…
We use a novel scanning electron Mach-Zehnder interferometer constructed in a conventional transmission electron microscope to perform inelastic interferometric imaging with free electrons. An electron wave function is prepared in two paths that pass on opposite sides of a gold nanoparticle, where plasmons are excited before the paths are recombined to produce electron interference. We show that the measured spectra are consistent with theoretical predictions, specifically that the interference signal formed by inelastically scattered electrons is pi out of phase with respect to that formed by…
Free-Electron Ramsey-Type Interferometry for Enhanced Amplitude and Phase imaging of Nearfields
Andrew and Erna Viterbi department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology（安德鲁和埃尔纳·维特比电气与计算机工程系，以色列理工学院）；Solid State Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology（固体研究所，以色列理工学院）；Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（物理系和电子研究实验室，麻省理工学院）；Department of Material Science, University of Milano-Bicocca（材料科学系，米兰比可卡大学）
In this work we provide theoretical background for the analysis of second-order correlation functions in experiments performed at the soft x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). Typically, soft x-ray beamlines at XFELs are equipped by the variable line spacing (VLS) monochromators. We perform examination of the beam propagation through such VLS monochromator taking specially into account the interplay between the finite monochromator resolution and the exit slits width. We then provide general analysis of the second-order correlation intensities in spectral and spatial domains. Finally, we connec…
The implementation of quantum technologies in electronics leads naturally to the concept of coherent single-electron circuits, in which a single charge is used coherently to provide enhanced performance. In this work, we propose a coherent single-electron device that operates as an electrically-tunable capacitor. This system exhibits a sinusoidal dependence of the capacitance with voltage, in which the amplitude of the capacitance changes and the voltage period can be tuned by electric means. The device concept is based on double-passage Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana interferometry of a co…
Hybrid spin-mechanical systems have great potentials in sensing, macroscopic quantum mechanics, and quantum information science. In order to induce strong coupling between an electron spin and the center-of-mass motion of a mechanical oscillator, a large magnetic gradient is usually required, which is difficult to achieve. Here we show that strong coupling between the electron spin of a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center and the torsional vibration of an optically levitated nanodiamond can be achieved in a uniform magnetic field. Thanks to the uniform magnetic field, multiple spins can strongly coup…
Phonons are considered to be universal quantum transducers due to their ability to couple to a wide variety of quantum systems. Among these systems, solid-state point defect spins are known for being long-lived optically accessible quantum memories. Recently, it has been shown that inversion-symmetric defects in diamond, such as the negatively charged silicon vacancy center (SiV), feature spin qubits that are highly susceptible to strain. Here, we leverage this strain response to achieve coherent and low-power acoustic control of a single SiV spin, and perform acoustically driven Ramsey interf…
X-ray free-electron lasers (FEL) deliver ultrabright X-ray pulses, but not the sequences of phase-coherent pulses required for time-domain interferometry and control of quantum states. For conventional split-and-delay schemes to produce such sequences the challenge stems from extreme stability requirements when splitting Angstrom wavelength beams where tiniest path length differences introduce phase jitter. We describe an FEL mode based on selective electron bunch degradation and transverse beam shaping in the accelerator, combined with a self-seeded photon emission scheme. Instead of splittin…
Continuum-electron interferometry for enhancement of photoelectron circular dichroism and measurement of bound, free, and mixed contributions to chiral response
The superposition principle is one of the bizarre predictions of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, it has been experimentally verified using electrons, photons, atoms, and molecules. In this article, using a $20~$nm levitated ferromagnetic FePt nanoparticle, an exotic all optical spin polarization technique and the matter-wave interferometry, we show that a mesoscopic spatial Schrodinger cat can be created. Additionally, we argue that the maximum spatial separation between the delocalized wavepackets can be $25~μm$ and is significantly larger than the object itself.
We study quantum interference effects of a qubit whose energy levels are continuously modulated. The qubit is formed by an impurity electron spin in a silicon tunneling field-effect transistor, and it is read out by spin blockade in a double-dot configuration. The qubit energy levels are modulated via its gate-voltage-dependent g-factors, with either rectangular, sinusoidal, or ramp radio-frequency waves. The energy-modulated qubit is probed by the electron spin resonance. Our results demonstrate the potential of spin qubit interferometry implemented in a silicon device and operated at a relat…
Attosecond interferometry (AI) is an experimental technique based on ionizing a system with an attosecond pulse train in the presence of an assisting laser. This assisting laser provides multiple pathways for the photoelectron wave packet to reach the same final state, and interference of these pathways can be used to probe properties of matter. The mechanism of AI is well-understood for isolated atoms and molecules in the gas phase, but not so much in the condensed phase, especially if the substrate under study is transparent. Then, additional pathways open up for the electron due to scatteri…
