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arXiv:0903.2036 · New Journal of Physics

Dephasing by electron–electron interactions in a ballistic Mach–Zehnder interferometer

Clemens Neuenhahn, Florian Marquardt

Published Nov 20, 2008• 21 citations
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Abstract

We consider a ballistic Mach–Zehnder interferometer for electrons propagating chirally in one dimension (such as in an integer quantum Hall effect edge channel). In such a system, dephasing occurs when the finite range of the interaction potential is taken into account. Using the tools of bosonization, we discuss the decay of coherence as a function of propagation distance and energy. We supplement the exact solution by a semiclassical approach that is physically transparent and is exact at high energies. In particular, we study in more detail the recently predicted universal power-law decay of the coherence at high energies, where the exponent does not depend on the interaction strength. In addition, we compare against Keldysh perturbation theory, which works well for small interaction strength at short propagation distances.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/10/11/115018

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We consider a ballistic Mach–Zehnder interferometer for electrons propagating chirally in one dimension (such as in an integer quantum Hall effect edge channel). In such a system, dephasing occurs when the finite range of the interaction potential is taken into account. Using the tools of bosonization, we discuss the decay of coherence as a function of propagation distance and energy. We supplement the exact solution by a semiclassical approach that is physically transparent and is exact at high energies. In particular, we study in more detail the recently predicted universal power-law decay of the coherence at high energies, where the exponent does not depend on the interaction strength. In addition, we compare against Keldysh perturbation theory, which works well for small interaction strength at short propagation distances.
We consider a ballistic Mach-Zehnder interferometer for electrons propagating chirally in one dimension (such as in an integer quantum Hall effect edge channel). In such a system, dephasing occurs when the finite range of the interaction potential is taken into account. Using the tools of bosonization, we discuss the decay of coherence as a function of propagation distance and energy. We supplement the exact solution by a semiclassical approach that is physically transparent and is exact at high energies. In particular, we study in more detail the recently predicted universal power-law decay of the coherence at high energies, where the exponent does not depend on the interaction strength. In addition, we compare against Keldysh perturbation theory, which works well for small interaction strength at short propagation distances.
A non-perturbative treatment is developed for the dephasing produced by the shot noise of a one-dimensional electron channel. It is applied to two systems: a charge qubit and the electronic Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI), both of them interacting with an adjacent partitioned electronic channel acting as a detector. We find that the visibility (interference contrast) can display oscillations as a function of detector voltage and interaction time. This is a unique consequence of the non-Gaussian properties of the shot noise, and only occurs in the strong coupling regime, when the phase contributed by a single electron exceeds π. The resulting formula reproduces the recent surprising experimental observations reported in (I Neder et al 2006 Preprint cond-mat/0610634), and indicates a general explanation for similar visibility oscillations observed earlier in the MZI at large bias voltage. We explore in detail the full pattern of oscillations as a function of coupling strength, voltage and time, which might be observable in future experiments.
A non-perturbative treatment is developed for the dephasing produced by the shot noise of a one-dimensional electron channel. It is applied to two systems: a charge qubit and the electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), both of them interacting with an adjacent partitioned electronic channel acting as a detector. We find that the visibility (interference contrast) can display oscillations as a function of detector voltage and interaction time. This is a unique consequence of the non-Gaussian properties of the shot noise, and only occurs in the strong coupling regime, when the phase contributed by a single electron exceeds p. The resulting formula reproduces the recent surprising experimental observations reported in (I Neder et al 2006 Preprint cond-mat/0610634), and indicates a general explanation for similar visibility oscillations observed earlier in the MZI at large bias voltage. We explore in detail the full pattern of oscillations as a function of coupling strength, voltage and time, which might be observable in future experiments.
Electronic interferometers have been identified as possible candidates for building electronic flying qubits. Such a regime requires ultrafast voltage pulses whose duration is shorter than the time of flight through the device. Understanding the corresponding physics in the presence of such short excitations requires a proper treatment of electron-electron interactions. In this article, we take a step in this direction by performing time-resolved simulations of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer treating the interactions at the time-dependent mean-field level. We find that the main effect of the interaction is the renormalization of the pulse velocity. Very importantly, the interference effects appear to be robust to the presence of interactions.
We generalize the Levitov-Lesovik formula for the probability distribution function of the electron charge transferred through a phase coherent conductor, to include projective measurements that monitor the chiral propagation in quantum Hall edge modes. When applied to an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the monitoring reduces the visibility of the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations while preserving the binomial form of the counting statistics, thereby removing a fundamental shortcoming of the dephasing-probe model of decoherence.