We study dephasing of electrons induced by a which path detector and thus verify Bohr's complementarity principle for fermions. We utilize a double path interferometer with two slits, with one slit being replaced by a coherent quantum dot (QD). A short one dimensional channel, in the form of a quantum point contact (QPC), in close proximity to the QD, serves as a which path detector. We find that by varying the properties of the QPC detector we affect the visibility of the interference, inducing thus dephasing. We develop a simple model to explain the dephasing due to the nearby detector and find good agreement with the experiment.
We study charge detection and controlled dephasing of a mesoscopic system via a quantum dot detector (QDD), where the mesoscopic system and the QDD are capacitively coupled. The QDD is considered to have coherent resonant tunnelling via a single level. It is found that the dephasing rate is proportional to the square of the conductance of the QDD for the Breit-Wigner model, showing that the dephasing is completely different from the shot noise of the detector. The measurement rate, on the other hand, shows a dip near the resonance. Our findings are peculiar especially for a symmetric detector …
Controlled dephasing of electrons, via 'which path' detection, involves, in general, coupling a coherent system to a current driven noise source. However, here, we present a case in which a nearly isolated electron puddle at thermal equilibrium strongly affects the coherence of a nearby electronic interferometer. Moreover, for certain average electron occupations of the puddle, the interferometer exhibits complete dephasing. This robust phenomenon stems from the Friedel Sum Rule, which relates a system's occupation with its scattering phases. The interferometer opens a peeping window into phys…
We study dynamics of the measurement process in quantum dot systems, where a particular state out of coherent superposition is observed. The ballistic point-contact placed near one of the dots is taken as a noninvasive detector. We demonstrate that the measurement process is fully described by the Bloch-type equations applied to the whole system. These equations clearly reproduce the collapse of the density-matrix into the statistical mixture in the course of the measurement process. The corresponding dephasing width is uniquely defined. We show that the continuous observation of one of the st…
Interference results when a quantum particle is free to choose among a few indistinguishable paths. A canonical example of Bohr's complementarity principle [1] is a two-path interferometer with an external detector coupled to one of the paths. Then, interference between the two paths vanishes (i.e. dephasing) if one is able to detect, even in principle, the path taken by the particle. This type of which path (WP) experiment was already executed with photons, cooled atoms, neutrons, solitons, and more recently with electrons in a mesoscopic system [2]. In the latter experiment path determinatio…
Resonant tunneling through identical potential barriers is a textbook problem in quantum mechanics. Its solution yields total transparency (100% tunneling) at discrete energies. This dramatic phenomenon results from coherent interference among many trajectories, and it is the basis of transport through periodic structures. Resonant tunneling of electrons is commonly seen in semiconducting 'quantum dots'. Here we demonstrate that detecting (distinguishing) electron trajectories in a quantum dot (QD) renders the QD nearly insulating. We couple trajectories in the QD to a 'detector' by employing …
Determination of the path taken by a quantum particle leads to a suppression of interference and to a classical behavior. We employ here a quantum 'which path' detector to perform accurate path determination in a two-path-electron-interferometer; leading to full suppression of the interference. Following the dephasing process we recover the interference by measuring the cross-correlation between the interferometer and detector currents. Under our measurement conditions every interfering electron is dephased by approximately a single electron in the detector - leading to mutual entanglement of …
A single-electron two-path interference (Young) experiment is considered theoretically. The decoherence of an electron wave packet due to the 'which path' trace left in the conducting (metallic) plate placed under the electron trajectories is calculated using the many-body quantum description of the electron gas reservoir.
The nonlinearity exhibited by the kinetic inductance of a superconducting stripline couples stripline resonator modes together in a manner suitable for quantum non-demolition measurement of the number of photons in a given resonator mode. Quantum non-demolition measurement is accomplished by coherently driving another resonator mode, referred to as the detector mode, and measuring its response. We show that the sensitivity of such a detection scheme is directly related to the dephasing rate induced by such an intermode coupling. We show that high sensitivity is expected when the detector mode …
We provide a detailed theoretical analysis of the adiabatic evolution of degenerate open quantum systems, where the dynamics is induced by time-dependent fluctuating loop paths in control parameter space. For weak system-bath coupling, the fluctuations around a deterministic base path obey Gaussian statistics, where we assume that the quantum adiabatic theorem is also satisfied for fluctuating paths. We show that universal non-Abelian geometric dephasing (NAGD) contributions are contained in the fluctuation-averaged evolution operator. This operator plays a key role in all experimental protoco…
We show that long standing debates on the collapse and the role of the observer in quantum mechanics can be resolved experimentally via a nondistructive continuous monitoring of a single quantum system. An example of such a system, coupled with the point-contact detector is presented. The detailed quantum mechanical analysis of the entire system (including the detector) shows that under certain conditions the measurement collapse would generate distinctive effects in the detector behavior, which can be experimentally investigated.
A quantum system interacting with its environment is subject to dephasing which ultimately destroys the information it holds. Using a superconducting qubit, we experimentally show that this dephasing has both dynamic and geometric origins. It is found that geometric dephasing, which is present even in the adiabatic limit and when no geometric phase is acquired, can either reduce or restore coherence depending on the orientation of the path the qubit traces out in its projective Hilbert space. It accompanies the evolution of any system in Hilbert space subjected to noise.
Geometrical dephasing is distinct from dynamical dephasing in that it depends on the trajectory traversed, hence it reverses its sign upon flipping the direction in which the path is traced. Here we study sequences of generalized (weak) measurements that steer a system in a closed trajectory. The readout process is marked by fluctuations, giving rise to dephasing. Rather than classifying the latter as "dynamical" and "geometrical", we identify a contribution which is invariant under reversing the sequence ordering and, in analogy with geometrical dephasing, one which flips its sign upon the re…
We theoretically study the measurement-induced dephasing caused by back action noise in quantum nondemolition measurements of a superconducting flux qubit which is coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). Our analytical results indicate that information on qubit flows from qubit to detector, while quantum fluctuations which may cause dephasing of the qubit also inject to qubit. Furthermore, the measurement probability is frequency dependent in a short time scale and has a close relationship with the measurement-induced dephasing. When the detuning between driven and ba…
Linear response theory describes quantum measurement with an arbitrary detector weakly coupled to a measured system. This description produces generic quantitative relation characterizing the detector that is analogous to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for equilibrium systems. The detector characteristic obtained in this way shows how efficient the trade-off is between the back-action dephasing and information acquisition by the detector.
Attosecond Path Qubits in High-Harmonic Generation: Classical Dephasing and Trace-Out Decoherence
Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology（广东以色列理工学院）；Technion – Israel Institute of Technology（以色列理工学院）；Eastern Institute of Technology（东方理工大学）
We examine whether the chaotic behavior of classical systems with a limited number of degrees of freedom can produce quantum dephasing, against the conventional idea that dephasing takes place only in large systems with a huge number of constituents and complicated internal interactions. On the basis of this analysis, we briefly discuss the possibility of defining quantum chaos and of inventing a ``chaos detector".
The parametrization of adiabatic paths is optimal when tunneling is minimized. Hamiltonian evolutions do not have unique optimizers. However, dephasing Lindblad evolutions do. The optimizers are simply characterized by an Euler-Lagrange equation and have a constant tunneling rate along the path irrespective of the gap. Application to quantum search algorithms recovers the Grover result for appropriate scaling of the dephasing. Dephasing rates that beat Grover imply hidden resources in Lindblad operators.
We report on the unexpected increase in the dephasing lengths of a graphene sheet caused by the deposition of Pd nanoclusters, as demonstrated by weak localization measurements. The dephasing lengths reached saturated values at low temperatures. Theoretical calculations indicate the p-type charge transfer from the Pd clusters, which contributes more carriers. The saturated values of dephasing lengths often depend on both the carrier concentration and mean free path. Although some impurities are increased as revealed by decreased mobilities, the intense charge transfer leads to the improved sat…
We formulate general conditions necessary for a linear-response detector to reach the quantum limit of measurement efficiency, where the measurement-induced dephasing rate takes on its minimum possible value. These conditions are applicable to both non-interacting and interacting systems. We assess the status of these requirements in an arbitrary non-interacting scattering based detector, identifying the symmetries of the scattering matrix needed to reach the quantum limit. We show that these conditions are necessary to prevent the existence of information in the detector which is not extracte…
Realizing perfect two-photon entanglement from quantum dots has been a long-standing scientific challenge. It is generally thought that the nuclear spins limit the entanglement fidelity through spin flip dephasing processes. However, this assumption lacks experimental support. Here, we show dephasing-free two-photon entanglement from an Indium rich single quantum dot comprising of nuclear spin 9/2 when excited quasi-resonantly. This remarkable finding is based on a perfect match between our entanglement measurements with our model that assumes no dephasing and takes into account the detection …
Selective energy transport throughout a quantum network connected to more than one reaction center can play an important role in many natural and technological considerations in photo-systems. In this work, we propose a method in which an excitation can be transported from the original site of the network to one of the reaction centers arbitrarily using independent sources of dephasing noises. We demonstrate a situation that in the absence of dephasing noises the coherent evolution of the system has no role in the energy transport in the network. Therefore, incoherent evolution via application…
The Aharanov-Bohm (AB) effect, which predicts that a magnetic field strongly influences the wave function of an electrically charged particle, is investigated in a three site system in terms of the quantum control by an additional dephasing source. The AB effect leads to a non-monotonic dependence of the steady-state current on the gauge phase associated with the molecular ring. This dependence is sensitive to site energy, temperature, and dephasing, and can be explained using the concept of the dark state. Although the phase effect vanishes in the steady-state current for strong dephasing, th…
The elastic scattering peak of a resonantly driven two-level system has been argued to provide narrow-linewidth antibunched photons. Although independent measurements of spectral width on the one hand and antibunching on the other hand do seem to show that this is the case, a joint measurement reveals that only one or the other of these attributes can be realised in the direct emission. We discuss a scheme which interferes the emission with a laser to produce simultaneously single photons of subnatural linewidth. In particular, we consider the effect of dephasing and of the detuning between th…
High contrast matter-wave interferometry is essential in various fundamental quantum mechanical experiments as well as for technical applications. Thereby, contrast and sensitivity are typically reduced by decoherence and dephasing effects. While decoherence accounts for a general loss of quantum information in a system due to entanglement with the environment, dephasing is due to collective time-dependent external phase shifts, which can be related to temperature drifts, mechanical vibrations or electromagnetic oscillations. In contrast to decoherence, dephasing can in principle be reversed. …
Electronic coherence is of utmost importance for the access and control of quantum-mechanical solid-state properties. Using a purely electronic observable, the photocurrent, we measure an electronic coherence time of 22 +/- 4 fs in graphene. The photocurrent is ideally suited to measure electronic coherence as it is a direct result of quantum path interference, controlled by the delay between two ultrashort two-color laser pulses. The maximum delay for which interference between the population amplitude injected by the first pulse interferes with that generated by the second pulse determines t…
Quantum spin dephasing is caused by inhomogeneous coupling to the environment, with resulting limits to the measurement time and precision of spin-based sensors. The effects of spin dephasing can be especially pernicious for dense ensembles of electronic spins in the solid-state, such as for nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond. We report the use of two complementary techniques, spin bath control and double quantum coherence, to enhance the inhomogeneous spin dephasing time ($T_2^*$) for NV ensembles by more than an order of magnitude. In combination, these quantum control techniques…
We make use of a superconducting qubit to study the effects of noise on adiabatic geometric phases. The state of the system, an effective spin one-half particle, is adiabatically guided along a closed path in parameter space and thereby acquires a geometric phase. By introducing artificial fluctuations in the control parameters, we measure the geometric contribution to dephasing for a variety of noise powers and evolution times. Our results clearly show that only fluctuations which distort the path lead to geometric dephasing. In a direct comparison with the dynamic phase, which is path-indepe…
We consider the problem of continuous quantum measurement of coherent oscillations between two quantum states of an individual two-state system. It is shown that the interplay between the information acquisition and the backaction dephasing of the oscillations by the detector imposes a fundamental limit, equal to 4, on the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement. The limit is universal, e.g., independent of the coupling strength between the detector and system, and results from the tendency of quantum measurement to localize the system in one of the measured eigenstates.
The Loschmidt echo is a measure of quantum irreversibility and is determined by the fidelity amplitude of an imperfect time-reversal protocol. Fidelity amplitude plays an important role both in the foundations of quantum mechanics and its applications, such as time-resolved electronic spectroscopy. We derive an exact path integral formula for the fidelity amplitude and use it to obtain a series of increasingly accurate semiclassical approximations by truncating an exact expansion of the path integral exponent. While the zeroth-order expansion results in a remarkably simple, yet nontrivial appr…
Due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, various classical systems differing only on the scale smaller than Planck's cell correspond to the same quantum system. This fact is used to find a unique semiclassical representation without the Van Vleck determinant, applicable to a large class of correlation functions expressible as quantum fidelity. As in the Feynman path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, all contributing trajectories have the same amplitude: that is why it is denoted the ``dephasing representation.'' By relating the present approach to the problem of existence of true …
Modeling an arbitrarily accelerating qubit as an open quantum system, we derive an exact solution for the pure-dephasing model ($σ_z$ coupling) under arbitrary qubit space-time trajectories, as well as general expressions for the survival probabilities of finite-length qubits interacting with a massless scalar field under $σ_x$ coupling (an Unruh-DeWitt detector) to second order. We follow the regularization scheme presented in a previous paper by S. Schlicht, to allow a finite length quantum detector to couple to the massless scalar field. We compute the decay rate of the qubit in different c…
In this paper, we propose an explicit scheme to fully recover a multiple-qubit state subject to a phase damping noise. We establish the theoretical framework and the operational procedure to restore an unknown initial quantum state for an N-qubit model interacting with either individual baths or a common bath. We give an explicit construction of the random unitary (RU) Kraus decomposition for an N-qubit model interacting with a common bath. We also demonstrate how to use only one unitary reversal operation to restore an arbitrary state with phase damping noise. In principle, the initial state …
Quantum state reconstruction involves measurement devices that are usually described by idealized models, but not known in full detail in experiments. For weak propagating microwaves, the detection process requires linear amplifiers which obscure the signal with random noise. Here, we introduce a theory which nevertheless allows one to use these devices for measuring all quadrature moments of propagating quantum microwaves based on cross-correlations from a dual-path amplification setup. Simultaneously, the detector noise properties are determined, allowing for tomography. We demonstrate the f…
We theoretically investigate a generalized "which-path" measurement on an electronic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) implemented via Coulomb coupling to a second electronic MZI acting as a detector. The use of contextual values, or generalized eigenvalues, enables the precise construction of which-path operator averages that are valid for any measurement strength from the available drain currents. The form of the contextual values provides direct physical insight about the measurement being performed, providing information about the correlation strength between system and detector, the measu…
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.
The striking efficiency of energy transfer in natural photosynthetic systems and the recent evidence of long-lived quantum coherence in biological light harvesting complexes has triggered much excitement, due to the evocative possibility that these systems - essential to practically all life on earth -- use quantum mechanical effects to achieve optimal functionality. A large body of theoretical work has addressed the role of local environments in determining the transport properties of excitons in photosynthetic networks and the survival of quantum coherence in a classical environment. Nonethe…
We combine the dynamics of open quantum systems with interferometry and interference introducing the concept of open system interferometer. By considering a single photon in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, where the polarization (open system) and frequency (environment) of the photon interact, we theoretically show how inside the interferometer path-wise polarization dephasing dynamics is Markovian while the joint dynamics displays non-Markovian features. Outside the interferometer and due to interference, the open system displays rich dynamical features with distinct alternatives: Only one pat…
The realisation of quantum computers based on molecular electronic spins requires the design of qubits with very long coherence times, T2. Dephasing can proceed over several different microscopic pathways, active at the same time and in different regimes. This makes the rationalisation of the dephasing process not straightforward. Here we present a computational methodology able to address spin decoherence processes for a general ensemble of spins. The method consists in the propagation of the unitary quantum spin dynamics on a reduced Hilbert space. Then we study the dependence of spin dephas…
We propose an electronic quantum eraser in which the electrons are injected into a mesoscopic conductor at the quantum Hall regime. The conductor is composed of a two-path interferometer which is an electronic analogue of the optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a quantum point contact detector capacitively coupled to the interferometer. While the interference of the output current at the interferometer is shown to be suppressed by the which-path information, we show that the which-path information is erased by the zero-frequency cross correlation measurement between the interferometer and…
Interferometric signals are degraded by decoherence, which encompasses dephasing, mixing and any distinguishing which-path information. These three paradigmatic processes are fundamentally different, but, for coherent, single-photon and $N00N$-states, they degrade interferometric visibility in the very same way, which impedes the diagnosis of the cause for reduced visibility in a single experiment. We introduce a versatile formalism for many-boson interferometry based on double-sided Feynman diagrams, which we apply to a protocol for differential decoherence diagnosis: Twin-Fock states |N,N> w…
We study the two-path interference of single-particle pulses measured by the Unruh-DeWitt-type quantum detector, which itself is a quantum state as well as the incoming pulse, and of which the interaction with the pulse is described by unitary quantum evolution instead of a nonunitary collapsing process. Provided that the quantum detector remains coherent in time long enough, the detection probability still manifests the two-path interference pattern even if the length difference between the two paths considerably exceeds the coherence length of the single-particle pulse, contrary to the resul…
We propose a scheme that generalizes the loss scaling properties of twin-field or phase-matching quantum key distribution (QKD) related to a channel of transmission $η_{total}$ from $\sqrt{η_{total}}$ to $\sqrt[2n]{η_{total}}$ by employing n-1 memory stations with spin qubits and n beam-splitter stations including optical detectors. Our scheme's resource states are similar to the coherent-state-based light-matter entangled states of a previous hybrid quantum repeater, but unlike the latter our scheme avoids the necessity of employing 2n-1 memory stations and writing the transmitted optical sta…
According to Bohr's principle of complementarity, a quanton can behave either as a wave or a particle, depending on the choice of the experimental setup. Some recent two-path interference experiments have devised methods where one can have a quantum superposition of the two choices, thus indicating that a quanton may be in a superposition of wave and particle nature. These experiments have been of interest from the point of view of Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment. However, it has also been claimed that this experiment can violate complementarity. Here we theoretically analyze a multipath i…
We study the robustness of quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement-induced entanglement between Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs). We consider an experimental scheme where two BECs are placed in the paths of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a QND interaction creates entanglement between coherent light and the atoms. We analyze the two dominant channels of decoherence, atomic dephasing and photon loss on the entangled states produced by this scheme. We calculate the effect of dephasing on the variance and expectation values of the spin operators, entanglement, and correlation criteria. Our ana…
Particle detectors are an ubiquitous tool for probing quantum fields in the context of relativistic quantum information (RQI). We formulate the Unruh-DeWitt (UDW) particle detector model in terms of the path integral formalism. The formulation is able to recover the results of the model in general globally hyperbolic spacetimes and for arbitrary detector trajectories. Integrating out the detector's degrees of freedom yields a line defect that allows one to express the transition probability in terms of Feynman diagrams. Inspired by the light-matter interaction, we propose a gauge invariant det…
