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arXiv:2010.04635

Quantum measurement induces a many-body transition

Michael S. Ferguson, Leon C. Camenzind, Clemens Müller, Daniel E. F. Biesinger, C. P. Scheller, Bernd Braunecker, Dominik M. Zumbühl, Oded Zilberberg

Published Oct 9, 2020• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The current revolution in quantum technologies relies on the ability to isolate, coherently control, and measure the state of quantum systems. The act of measurement in quantum mechanics, however, is naturally invasive as the measurement apparatus becomes entangled with the system that it observes. Even for ideal detectors, the measurement outcome always leads to a disturbance in the observed system, a phenomenon called quantum measurement backaction. Here we report a profound change in the many-body properties of the measured system due to quantum measurements. We observe this backaction-induced transition in a mesoscopic double quantum-dot in the Coulomb-blockade regime, where we switch the electron population through measurement with a charge sensor dot. Our finding showcases the important changes in behaviour that can arise due to quantum detectors, which are ubiquitous in quantum technologies.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2010.04635

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The current revolution in quantum technologies relies on the ability to isolate, coherently control, and measure the state of quantum systems. The act of measurement in quantum mechanics, however, is naturally invasive as the measurement apparatus becomes entangled with the system that it observes. Even for ideal detectors, the measurement outcome always leads to a disturbance in the observed system, a phenomenon called quantum measurement backaction. Here we report a profound change in the many-body properties of the measured system due to quantum measurements. We observe this backaction-induced transition in a mesoscopic double quantum-dot in the Coulomb-blockade regime, where we switch the electron population through measurement with a charge sensor dot. Our finding showcases the important changes in behaviour that can arise due to quantum detectors, which are ubiquitous in quantum technologies.
Quantum information processing is a key technology in the ongoing second quantum revolution, with a wide variety of hardware platforms competing toward its realization. An indispensable component of such hardware is a measurement device, i.e., a quantum detector that is used to determine the outcome of a computation. The act of measurement in quantum mechanics, however, is naturally invasive as the measurement apparatus becomes entangled with the system that it observes. This always leads to a disturbance in the observed system, a phenomenon called quantum measurement backaction, which should solely lead to the collapse of the quantum wave function and the physical realization of the measurement postulate of quantum mechanics. Here we demonstrate that backaction can fundamentally change the quantum system through the detection process. For quantum information processing, this means that the readout alters the system in such a way that a faulty measurement outcome is obtained. Specifically, we report a backaction-induced population switching, where the bare presence of weak, nonprojective measurements by an adjacent charge sensor inverts the electronic charge configuration of a semiconductor double quantum dot system. The transition region grows with measurement strength and is suppressed by temperature, in excellent agreement with our coherent quantum backaction model. Our result exposes backaction channels that appear at the interplay between the detector and the system environments, and opens new avenues for controlling and mitigating backaction effects in future quantum technologies.
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Quantum measurements disturb the quantum system being measured, and this is known as measurement-induced backaction. In this paper, we consider a double quantum dot monitored by a nearby quantum point contact, where the measurement-induced backaction plays an important role. Taking advantage of the quantum master equation approach, we calculate the tunneling current and propose a simple feedback-control law to realize and stabilize the tunneling current. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show that the feedback control law can make the current quickly convergent to the desired value.
Decoherence of a quantum system arising from its interaction with an environment is a key concept for understanding the transition between the quantum and classical world as well as performance limitations in quantum technology applications. The effects of large, weakly coupled environments are often described as a classical, fluctuating field whose dynamics is unaffected by the qubit, whereas a fully quantum description still implies some backaction from the qubit on the environment. Here we show direct experimental evidence for such a backaction for an electron-spin qubit in a GaAs quantum dot coupled to a mesoscopic environment of order 10^{6} nuclear spins. By means of a correlation measurement technique, we detect the backaction of a single qubit-environment interaction whose duration is comparable to the qubit's coherence time, even in such a large system. We repeatedly let the qubit interact with the spin bath and measure its state. Between such cycles, the qubit is reinitialized to different states. The correlations of the measurement outcomes are strongly affected by the intermediate qubit state, which reveals the action of a single electron spin on the nuclear spins.
We investigate a tunnel contact coupled to a double quantum dot (DQD) and employed as a charge monitor for the latter. We consider both the classical limit and the quantum regime. In the classical case, we derive measurement correlations from conditional probabilities, yielding quantitative statements about the parameter regime in which the detection scheme works well. Moreover, we demonstrate that not only the DQD occupation but also the corresponding current may strongly correlate with the detector current. The quantum-mechanical solution, obtained with a Bloch-Redfield master equation, shows that the backaction of the measurement tends to localize the DQD electrons, and thus significantly reduces the DQD current. Moreover, it provides the effective parameters of the classical treatment. It turns out that already the classical description is adequate for most operating regimes.
We propose to continuously monitor a charge qubit by utilizing a T-shaped double quantum dot detector, in which the qubit and double dot are arranged in such a unique way that the detector turns out to be particularly susceptible to the charge states of the qubit. Special attention is paid to the regime where acquisition of qubit information and backaction upon the measured system exhibit nontrivial correlation. The intrinsic dynamics of the qubit gives rise to dynamical blockade of tunneling events through the detector, resulting in a super-Poissonian noise. However, such a pronounced enhancement of the detector's shot noise does not necessarily produce a rising dephasing rate. In contrast, an inhibition of dephasing is entailed by the reduction of information acquisition in the dynamically blockaded regimes. We further reveal the important impact of the charge fluctuations on the measurement characteristics. Noticeably, under the condition of symmetric junction capacitances the noise pedestal of the circuit current is completely suppressed, leading to a divergent signal-to-noise ratio, and eventually to a violation of the Korotkov-Averin bound in quantum measurement. Our study offers the possibility for a double dot detector to reach the quantum limited effectiveness in a transparent manner.