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arXiv:0806.0913 · Physical Review B

Edge-state Fabry-Perot interferometer as a high-sensitivity charge detector

Pradyumna K. Pathak, Kicheon Kang

Published Jun 8, 2009• 2 citations
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Abstract

We present a scheme for high-sensitivity and high-efficiency charge detection in the integer quantum-Hall regime using two point contacts in series. The setup is an electronic analog of an optical Fabry-Perot interferometer. We show that for small transmission through the point contacts the sensitivity of the interferometer is very high due to multiple reflections at the point contacts. The sensitivity can be further enhanced twice by using electrons in spin-entangled state. We show that for point contacts having different reflection probabilities, the detector can be tuned for the quantum-limited measurement.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.79.233302

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We present a scheme for high-sensitivity and high-efficiency charge detection in the integer quantum-Hall regime using two point contacts in series. The setup is an electronic analog of an optical Fabry-Perot interferometer. We show that for small transmission through the point contacts the sensitivity of the interferometer is very high due to multiple reflections at the point contacts. The sensitivity can be further enhanced twice by using electrons in spin-entangled state. We show that for point contacts having different reflection probabilities, the detector can be tuned for the quantum-limited measurement.
We present a scheme for tuning two quantum point contacts as a quantum-limited charge detector. Based on the scattering matrix approach, we analyze a general condition of quantum-limited detection with a single-channel quantum detector possessing time-reversal symmetry. From this analysis we find that quantum-limited detection can be easily realized with two quantum point contacts connected in series, which is not possible if only a single quantum point contact is used. We also discuss the sensitivity enhancement due to multiple reflections of the two point contacts.
We report on a study of complementarity in a two-terminal closed-loop Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. In this interferometer, the simple picture of two-path interference cannot be applied. We introduce a nearby quantum point contact to detect the electron in a quantum dot inserted in the interferometer. We found that charge detection reduces but does not completely suppress the interference even in the limit of perfect detection. We attribute this phenomenon to the unique nature of the closed-loop interferometer. That is, the closed-loop interferometer cannot be simply regarded as a two-path interferometer because of multiple reflections of electrons. As a result, there exist indistinguishable paths of the electron in the interferometer and the interference survives even in the limit of perfect charge detection. This implies that charge detection is not equivalent to path detection in a closed-loop interferometer. We also discuss the phase rigidity of the transmission probability for a two-terminal conductor in the presence of a detector.
We propose a solid-state quantum eraser in which electrons are injected into a mesoscopic conductor in the quantum Hall regime. The conductor is composed of a two-path interferometer, an electronic analog 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 suppressed by the which-path information, we show that the which-path information is erased and the interference reappears in the cross-correlation measurement between the interferometer and the detector output leads. We also investigate a modified setup in which the detector is replaced by a two-path interferometer. We show that the distinguishability of the path and the visibility of joint detection can be controlled in a continuous manner and satisfy a complementarity relation for the entangled electrons.
We address the ultimate charge detection scheme with a quantum point contact. It is shown that a superposed input state is necessary to exploit the full sensitivity of a quantum point contact detector. The coherence of the input state provides an improvement in charge sensitivity, and this improvement is a result of a fundamental property of the scattering matrix. Further, a quantum-limited (maximally efficient) detection is made possible by controlling the interference between the two output waves. Our scheme provides the ultimate sensitivity and efficiency of charge detection with a generic quantum point contact.
Characterizing quantum states of the electromagnetic field at microwave frequencies requires fast and sensitive detectors that can simultaneously probe the field's time-dependent amplitude and its quantum fluctuations. So far, this has been achieved by using either homodyne detection or fast digitizers. Both methods rely on the extraction of microwave radiation through an amplification chain towards the detector placed at room temperature, thereby limiting the time resolution to the ~10-GHz bandwidth of the measurement chain. Additionally, the coupling of high-impedance samples to the 50-Ω measurement chain is very weak, setting strong limitations on the detection sensitivity. In this work, we demonstrate an on-chip quantum sensor that exploits the phase of a single-electron wavefunction, measured in an electronic Fabry-Pérot interferometer, to detect the amplitude of a classical time-dependent electric field. The interferometer is implemented in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum Hall conductor. The time resolution, limited by the temporal width of the electronic wavepacket, is ~35 ps. The interferometry technique provides a voltage resolution of ~50 μV, corresponding to a few microwave photons. Importantly, our detector measures both phase and contrast of the interference pattern. The latter opens the way to the detection of non-classical electromagnetic fields, such as squeezed or Fock states.
With photon-number resolving detectors, we show compression of interference fringes with increasing photon numbers for a Fabry-Perot interferometer. This feature provides a higher precision in determining the position of the interference maxima compared to a classical detection strategy. We also theoretically show supersensitivity if NNN-photon states are sent into the interferometer and a photon-number resolving measurement is performed.