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arXiv:1403.5897 · Physical Review B

Measuring cotunneling in its wake

Oded Zilberberg, Assaf Carmi, Alessandro Romito

Published Nov 11, 2014• 22 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We introduce a rate formalism to treat classically forbidden electron transport through a quantum dot (cotunneling) in the presence of a coupled measurement device. We demonstrate this formalism for a toy model case of cotunneling through a single-level dot while being coupled to a strongly pinched-off quantum point contact (QPC). We find that the detector generates three types of back-action: the measurement collapses the coherent transport through the virtual state, but at the same time allows for QPC-assisted incoherent transport, and widens the dot level. Last, we obtain the measured cotunneling time from the cross correlation between dot and QPC currents.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.90.205413

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We introduce a rate formalism to treat classically forbidden electron transport through a quantum dot (cotunneling) in the presence of a coupled measurement device. We demonstrate this formalism for a toy model case of cotunneling through a single-level dot while being coupled to a strongly pinched-off quantum point contact (QPC). We find that the detector generates three types of back-action: the measurement collapses the coherent transport through the virtual state, but at the same time allows for QPC-assisted incoherent transport, and widens the dot level. Last, we obtain the measured cotunneling time from the cross correlation between dot and QPC currents.
Charge sensing with quantum point-contacts (QPCs) is a technique widely used in semiconductor quantum-dot research. Understanding the physics of this measurement process, as well as finding ways of suppressing unwanted measurement back-action, are therefore both desirable. In this article, we present experimental studies targeting these two goals. Firstly, we measure the effect of a QPC on electron tunneling between two InAs quantum dots, and show that a model based on the QPC’s shot-noise can account for it. Secondly, we discuss the possibility of lowering the measurement current (and thus the back-action) used for charge sensing by correlating the signals of two independent measurement channels. The performance of this method is tested in a typical experimental setup.
Quantum point contact (QPC), one of the typical mesoscopic transport devices, has been suggested to be an efficient detector for quantum measurement. In the context of two-state charge qubit, our previous studies showed that the QPC's measurement back-action cannot be described by the conventional Lindblad quantum master equation. In this work, we study the measurement problem of a multistate system, say, an electron in disordered potential, subject to the quantum measurement of the mesoscopic detector QPC. The effect of measurement back-action and the detector's readout current are analyzed, where particular attention is focused on some new features and the underlying physics associated with the measurement-induced delocalization versus the measurement voltages.
We study the dynamics of two electron spins in coupled quantum dots (CQDs) monitored by a quantum point contact (QPC) detector. Their quantum state can be measured by embedding the QPC in an LC circuit. We derive the Bloch-type rate equations of the reduced density matrix for CQDs. Special attention is paid to the numerical results for the weak measurement condintion under a strong Coulomb interaction. It is shown that the evolution of QPC current always follows that of electron occupation in the right dot. In addition, we find that the output voltage of the circuit can reflect the evolution of QPC current when the circuit and QPC are approximately equal in frequency. In particular, the wave shape of the output voltage can be improved by adjusting the circuit resonance frequency and bandwidth.
Entanglement between a particle and a detector is known to be inherent in the measurement process. Gurvitz recently analyzed the coupling of an electron in a double dot (DD) to a quantum point contact (QPC) detector. In this paper we examine the dynamics of entanglement that result between the DD and QPC. The rate of entanglement is optimized as a function of coupling when the electron is initially in one of the dots. It decreases asymptotically towards zero with increased coupling. The opposite behavior is observed when the DD is initially in a superposition: the rate of entanglement increases unboundedly as the coupling is increased. The possibility that there are conditions for which measurement occurs versus entanglement is considered.
Quantum mechanics allows the existence of ``virtual states'' that have no classical analog. Such virtual states defy direct observation through strong measurement, which would destroy the volatile virtual state. Here, we show how a virtual state of an interacting many-body system can be detected employing a weak measurement protocol with post-selection. We employ this protocol for the measurement of the time it takes an electron to tunnel through a virtual state of a quantum dot (cotunneling). Contrary to classical intuition, this cotunneling time is independent of the strength of the dot-lead coupling and may deviate from that predicted by time-energy uncertainty relation. Our approach, amenable to experimental verification, may elucidate an important facet of quantum mechanics which hitherto was not accessible by direct measurements.
We solve the master equations of two charge qubits measured by two serially coupled quantum point contacts (QPCs). We describe two-qubit dynamics by comparing entangled states with product states, and show that the QPC current can be used for reading out results of quantum calculations and providing evidences of two-qubit entanglement. We also calculate the concurrence of the two qubits as a function of dephasing rate that originates from the measurement. We conclude that coupled charge qubits can be effectively detected by a QPC-based detector.