The work contained in this thesis deals with two closely related topics. Papers I-III deal with charge transport statistics in nanoscale devices to investigate the presence of entanglement in the constituent electrons. We identify the contributions of entangled electron pairs to the current cross-correlations as a signature of entanglement. Paper IV treats the electric control of a quantum dot based spin qubit via Electric Dipole Spin Resonance.In Paper I, we present a spin entanglement detection model in a hybrid nanoscale device, with a general entangler connected to a set of quantum dots and anti-collinear ferromagnetic contacts. Our model allows us to study the implications of a non-ideal detector in an entanglement detection scheme.In Paper II, we investigate a scheme for generating and detecting orbitally entangled states in a device consisting of six quantum dots. The underlying process which enables our proposed scheme is sufficiently fast, even for the rapidly decaying quantum coherence of orbital states defined in a solid.In Paper III, we investigate a minimal entanglement detection scheme based on measurements of current cross correlations. We find a significant reduction in the number of measurements required for an entanglement test.In Paper IV, we investigate the optimisation of electrically controlling an electron spin in a gate defined semiconductor quantum dot. Specifically, we study how the shape of the quantum dot together with the direction of an in-plane magnetic field affect the spin relaxation rate and frequency of the induced Rabi oscillations.
The work contained in this thesis deals with two closely related topics. Papers I-III deal with charge transport statistics in nanoscale devices to investigate the presence of entanglement in the constituent electrons. We identify the contributions of entangled electron pairs to the current cross-correlations as a signature of entanglement. Paper IV treats the electric control of a quantum dot based spin qubit via Electric Dipole Spin Resonance.In Paper I, we present a spin entanglement detection model in a hybrid nanoscale device, with a general entangler connected to a set of quantum dots and anti-collinear ferromagnetic contacts. Our model allows us to study the implications of a non-ideal detector in an entanglement detection scheme.In Paper II, we investigate a scheme for generating and detecting orbitally entangled states in a device consisting of six quantum dots. The underlying process which enables our proposed scheme is sufficiently fast, even for the rapidly decaying quantum coherence of orbital states defined in a solid.In Paper III, we investigate a minimal entanglement detection scheme based on measurements of current cross correlations. We find a significant reduction in the number of measurements required for an entanglement test.In Paper IV, we investigate the optimisation of electrically controlling an electron spin in a gate defined semiconductor quantum dot. Specifically, we study how the shape of the quantum dot together with the direction of an in-plane magnetic field affect the spin relaxation rate and frequency of the induced Rabi oscillations.
This thesis addresses two different topics related to the physics of nanoscale systems. The first topic concerns quantum correlations and entanglement between electrons in solid-state systems, with a focus on how to generate electronic orbital entanglement on a sub-decoherence time scale and how to achieve experimentally more feasible entanglement detection schemes. The second topic concerns heat transport and temperature fluctuations in nanoscale systems, with a focus on how to utilize temperature fluctuations for calorimetric detection of single particles. The thesis comprises five papers.In Paper I, we propose a quantum dot system to generate and detect, using cotunneling processes, orbitally entangled pairs of electrons on a sub-decoherence time scale.In Paper II, we investigate, by applying an entanglement witness, the minimal number of zero-frequency current cross-correlation measurements needed to detect bipartite entanglement between two flying qubits.In Paper III, we consider energy and temperature fluctuations, and the influence of charging effects, in a metallic island tunnel coupled to a normal metallic lead, the so-called single electron box.In Paper IV, we investigate nanoscale quantum calorimetry and propose a setup consisting of a metallic island and a superconducting lead to realize a nanoscale calorimeter that may probe the energies of tunneling electrons.In Paper V, we investigate photon transport statistics of a microwave cavity, including the short-time statistics of single photon emissions and the long-time statistics of heat transport through the cavity.
The goal of this thesis is to investigate theoretically the generation and behaviour of multipartite entanglement for solid-state nanosystems, in particular electron spin quantum bits (so-called 'qubits') in quantum dots. A quantum dot is a tiny potential well where a single electron can be trapped. A quantum bit can be implemented in this system by applying a magnetic field, and thereby lifting the degeneracy of the spin states of the electron. These spins can then be used as single qubits, and engineering many of these quantum dots next to each other gives as a register of qubits. In this scheme, the so-called Loss-DiVincenzo quantum computer, the single spins can be rotated e.g. by applying a time dependent magnetic field, and two spins can interact through controlling the potential barrier between them. A qubit cannot only be in a superposition of the two computational states 0 and 1 at the same time, but an even stranger characteristic arises for multiple qubits: this phenomenon is called entanglement and refers to a strong correlation between two or more qubits, which can not be achieved within the framework of classical physics, and exponentially enlarges the possible states for a N-qubit system as compared to a classical N-bit system. In this thesis we devise algorithms how to generate multipartite entangled states in electron spin qubits in quantum dots. We compare which classes of entangled states can be generated efficiently in this system. Once the states are created, they decay due to a process called decoherence. We compare how entangled states can be generated and detected in a realistic experiment, and which classes of states are the most suitable. Furthermore, we compare which classes conserve the entanglement, and quantify the robustness of various classes of entangled states. In the last chapter, we devise a scheme of how to execute a simple quantum algorithm, the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm, in a system containing another type of solid-state qubit, the so-called flux qubit.
Entanglement between spatially separated electrons in nanoscale transport is a fundamental property, yet to be demonstrated experimentally. Here we propose and analyse theoretically the transport statistics of a generic spin entangler coupled to a hybrid quantum dot-ferromagnet detector system. We show that the full distribution of charges arriving at the ferromagnetic terminals provides complete information on the spin state of the particles emitted by the entangler. This provides means for spin entanglement detection via electrical current correlations, with optimal measurement strategies depending on the a priori knowledge of ferromagnet polarization and spin-flip rates in the detector dots. The scheme is exemplified by applying it to Andreev and triple dot entanglers.
Control over electron-spin states, such as coherent manipulation, filtering and measurement promises access to new technologies in conventional as well as in quantum computation and quantum communication. In this paper, we review recent theoretical proposal of using electron spins in quantum confined structures as qubits. We also present a theoretical proposal for testing Bell’s inequality in nano-electronics devices. We show that the entanglement of two electron spins can be detected in the spin filter effect in the nanostructure semiconductor/ferromagnetic semiconductor/semiconductor junction. In particular, we show how to test Bell’s inequality via the measurement of the current-current correlation function in this setup.
Self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) containing a single electron are one of the leading candidate systems for the realization of a quantum computer. The spin states of charges confined in these dots have been shown to possess a number of qualities that are attractive for use as the quantum bits (qubits) in quantum computing implementations, particularly their long lifetimes and coherence times. In addition, these spin qubits may be controlled optically, offering the prospect of ultrafast qubit gate operations, a crucial necessity for the execution of quantum algorithms. Due to the weak interaction of self-assembled QDs with light, however, the coherent optical control and read-out of the spin states of charged self-assembled QDs has proven to be a considerable challenge. This thesis presents two sets of experiments demonstrating the coherent optical control and read-out of the quantum states of a self-assembled InAs QD containing a single electron. The first utilizes mode-locked picosecond optical pulses to control the optical transitions in the dot and to detect QD level occupations. These capabilities are used to observe transient phenomena in a singly charged InAs QD such as the generation and decay of excited state population and spin precession. Further, Rabi oscillations between the electron and the lowest-lying excited state are observed, demonstrating the ability to coherently control the optical transitions of the QD, a prerequisite for spin control. These results are built upon in the second set of experiments, in which a combination of optical pulses, an externally applied DC magnetic field and a continuous-wave (CW) optical field are employed to initialize and completely control the states of a QD confined electron spin. Spin control by the use of pulse-driven two-photon Raman processes, spin precession about the external magnetic field and geometric phases generated by CW-driven cyclic evolutions in the dot is demonstrated. A number of spin qubit gate operations are shown for these spin control mechanisms, forming a foundational set of single qubit gates required for the implementation of quantum computing with singly charged self-assembled QDs.
Recent experiments have demonstrated subdecoherence time control of individual single-electron orbital qubits. Here we propose a quantum-dot-based scheme for generation and detection of pairs of orbitally entangled electrons on a time scale much shorter than the decoherence time. The electrons are entangled, via two-particle interference, and transferred to the detectors during a single cotunneling event, making the scheme insensitive to charge noise. For sufficiently long detector dot lifetimes, cross-correlation detection of the dot charges can be performed with real-time counting techniques, providing for an unambiguous short-time Bell inequality test of orbital entanglement.