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arXiv:cond-mat/0304232 · Physical Review Letters

Enhancement of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling by Landau-Zener Transitions

Joachim Ankerhold, Hermann Grabert

Published Jul 3, 2003• 35 citations
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Abstract

Motivated by recent realizations of qubits with a readout by macroscopic quantum tunneling in a Josephson junction, we study the problem of barrier penetration in the presence of coupling to a spin-1 / 2 system. It is shown that, when the diabatic potentials for fixed spin intersect in the barrier region, Landau-Zener transitions lead to an enhancement of the tunneling rate. The effect of these spin flips in imaginary time is in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.91.016803

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Motivated by recent realizations of qubits with a readout by macroscopic quantum tunneling in a Josephson junction, we study the problem of barrier penetration in the presence of coupling to a spin-1 / 2 system. It is shown that, when the diabatic potentials for fixed spin intersect in the barrier region, Landau-Zener transitions lead to an enhancement of the tunneling rate. The effect of these spin flips in imaginary time is in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.
The interfacial coupling of two materials with different ordered phases, such as a superconductor (S) and a ferromagnet (F), is driving new fundamental physics and innovative applications. For example, the creation of spin-filter Josephson junctions and the demonstration of triplet supercurrents have suggested the potential of a dissipationless version of spintronics based on unconventional superconductivity. Here we demonstrate evidence for active quantum applications of S-F-S junctions, through the observation of macroscopic quantum tunnelling in Josephson junctions with GdN ferromagnetic insulator barriers. We show a clear transition from thermal to quantum regime at a crossover temperature of about 100 mK at zero magnetic field in junctions, which present clear signatures of unconventional superconductivity. Following previous demonstration of passive S-F-S phase shifters in a phase qubit, our result paves the way to the active use of spin filter Josephson systems in quantum hybrid circuits.
The Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg (LZS) effect in a model system of interacting tunneling particles is studied numerically and analytically. Each of N tunneling particles interacts with each of the others with the same coupling J. This problem maps onto that of the LZS effect for a large spin S=N/2.S=N/2.S=N/2. The mean-field limit $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{N}\ensuremath{\infty}$ corresponds to the classical limit $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{S}\ensuremath{\infty}$ for the effective spin. It is shown that the ferromagnetic coupling J>0J>0J>0 tends to suppress the LZS transitions. For $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{N}\ensuremath{\infty}$ there is a critical value of J above which the staying probability P does not go to zero in the slow sweep limit, unlike the standard LZS effect. For J<0J<0J<0 LZS transitions are boosted and P=0P=0P=0 for a set of finite values of the sweep rate for $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{N}\ensuremath{\infty}.$ Various limiting cases such as strong and weak interaction, slow and fast sweep are considered analytically. It is shown that the mean-field approach works well for arbitrary N if the interaction J is weak.
Landau-Zener tunneling, which describes the transition in a two-level system during a sweep through an anti-crossing, is a model applicable to a wide range of physical phenomena. Realistic quantum systems are affected by dissipation due to coupling to their environments. An important aspect of understanding such open quantum systems is the relative energy scales of the system itself and the system-environment coupling, which distinguishes the weak- and strong-coupling regimes. Using a tunable superconducting flux qubit, we observe the crossover from weak to strong coupling to the environment in Landau-Zener tunneling. Our results confirm previous theoretical studies of dissipative Landau-Zener tunneling in the weak and strong coupling limits. We devise a spin bath model that effectively captures the crossover regime. This work is relevant for understanding the role of dissipation in quantum annealing, where the system is expected to go through a cascade of Landau-Zener transitions before reaching the target state.
We study Landau-Zener transitions in a qubit coupled to a bath at zero temperature. A general formula that is applicable to models with a nondegenerate ground state is derived. We calculate exact transition probabilities for a qubit coupled to either a bosonic or a spin bath. The nature of the baths and the qubit-bath coupling is reflected in the transition probabilities. For diagonal coupling, when the bath causes energy fluctuations of the diabatic qubit states but no transitions between them, the transition probability coincides with the standard Landau-Zener probability of an isolated qubit. This result is universal as it does not depend on the specific type of bath. For pure off-diagonal coupling, by contrast, the tunneling probability is sensitive to the coupling strength. We discuss the relevance of our results for experiments on molecular nanomagnets, in circuit QED, and for the fast-pulse readout of superconducting phase qubits.