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arXiv:cond-mat/0306314 · Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

Arrays of Cooper pair boxes coupled to a superconducting reservoir: superradiance and revival

D A Rodrigues, Balazs L. Gyorffy, Timothy P. Spiller

Published Jun 8, 2004• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider an array of Cooper Pair Boxes, each of which is coupled to a superconducting reservoir by a capacitive tunnel junction. We discuss two effects that probe not just the quantum nature of the islands, but also of the superconducting reservoir coupled to them. These are analogues to the well-known quantum optical effects `superradiance,' and `revival.' When revival is extended to multiple systems, we find that `entanglement revival' can also be observed. In order to study the above effects, we utilise a highly simplified model for these systems in which all the single-electron energy eigenvalues are set to be the same (the strong coupling limit), as are the charging energies of the Cooper Pair Boxes, allowing the whole system to be represented by two large coupled quantum spins. Although this simplification is drastic, the model retains the main features necessary to capture the phenomena of interest. Given the progress in superconducting box experiments over recent years, it is possible that experiments to investigate both of these interesting quantum coherent phenomena could be performed in the forseeable future.

DOI
10.1088/0953-8984/16/25/008

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We consider an array of Cooper Pair Boxes, each of which is coupled to a superconducting reservoir by a capacitive tunnel junction. We discuss two effects that probe not just the quantum nature of the islands, but also of the superconducting reservoir coupled to them. These are analogues to the well-known quantum optical effects superradiance,' and revival.' When revival is extended to multiple systems, we find that `entanglement revival' can also be observed. In order to study the above effects, we utilise a highly simplified model for these systems in which all the single-electron energy eigenvalues are set to be the same (the strong coupling limit), as are the charging energies of the Cooper Pair Boxes, allowing the whole system to be represented by two large coupled quantum spins. Although this simplification is drastic, the model retains the main features necessary to capture the phenomena of interest. Given the progress in superconducting box experiments over recent years, it is possible that experiments to investigate both of these interesting quantum coherent phenomena could be performed in the forseeable future.
We consider a system of two superconducting islands, each of which is coupled to a bulk superconductor via Josephson tunneling. One of the islands represents a ``Cooper-pair box,'' i.e., it is an effective two-level system. The other island has a smaller charging energy and approximates a harmonic oscillator. A capacitive interaction between the islands results in a dependence of the oscillator frequency on the quantum state of the box. Placing the latter in a coherent superposition of its eigenstates and exciting coherent oscillations in the large island will lead to a phase shift of these oscillations depending on the box quantum state, thereby producing a coherent superposition of two ``mesoscopically distinct'' quantum states in the large island.
This thesis presents measurements of quantum coherence in a single Cooper pair box, where quantum oscillations of charge between a reservoir and a small superconducting island have been observed. The single Cooper pair box (SCB) consists of a small metallic island which is connected to a reservoir via a tunnel junction. In the superconducting state, Cooper pairs are free to tunnel to and from the island, whose potential can be controlled by a gate voltage. A graded gap method was used to prevent quasiparticles from tunneling onto the island. For this purpose, a magnetic field suppressed the superconducting gap in the SCB leads more than in the island. This created an additional energy barrier for quasiparticles to tunnel to the island, making the gate voltage modulation periodic in Cooper pair charge. For a limited range of gate voltage, the SCB was found to behave as a model two-level quantum mechanical system. A non-adiabatic change in the induced island charge was used to bring two charge states into resonance. The resulting time evolution showed clear charge oscillations between the ground and excited state, with a frequency given by the energy level separation divided by Planck's constant. These oscillations had a longest coherence time of T2=9 ns at a point where the pure charge states are degenerate. The coherence time at this point was found to be limited by the relaxation rate, ?1. Away from this point, the coherence time was limited by the dephasing rate, ??. Away from the charge degeneracy, the dependence of T2 on gate charge suggested that low frequency fluctuators were the main source of dephasing. The charge of the Cooper pair box was measured by coupling the SCB capacitively to a radio frequency single electron transistor (RF-SET). The RF-SET was used as an electrometer by measuring the amount of reflection from a resonant microwave circuit in which a single electron transistor (SET) was embedded. A best charge sensitivity of 2.3·10-6 e/sqrt(Hz) and a 7 MHz bandwidth was reached in an improved setup. Another part of this thesis concerns an investigation of electrical filters for use in single electronics experiments. The characteristics of seven different types of cryogenic filters were evaluated.
In the field of nanoelectronics, one seeks to combine quantum mechanical effects with macroscopic entities such as currents in order to find new ways of storing and manipulating information. One possibility to accomplish this is to use the quantum correlations found in superconductors. Teaming superconductors with normal metals and magnetic systems, one can obtain novel correlation and fluctuation effects. \n\nIn the first work of this thesis, we examine how charge correlations in a metallic dot are modified due to the presence of a capacitively coupled superconducting island. It is possible to overcome the Coulomb repulsion between electrons in a hybrid double-dot system consisting of a metallic island coupled capacitively to a Cooper-pair box. The superconducting island S acts as a dynamic gate on the metallic island N and in the strong coupling regime the electric charge of the Cooper pairs in S and their fluctuations are able to overscreen the repulsion between electrons in N. This produces an attractive interaction between two additional electrons in the metallic island and results in a non-monotonous charging curve of the metallic island. \n\nThe second part of the thesis considers how the dynamics of a precessing molecular magnetic moment affects the Josephson current. The precession gives rise to a time-dependent tunnel potential which not only creates different tunneling probabilities for spin-up and spin-down quasiparticles, but also introduces a time-dependent spin-flip term. In particular, we study the effects of the spin-flip term alone on the Josephson current between two spin-singlet superconductors as a function of precession frequency and junction transparency. The system displays a nonequilibrium steady-state solution which depends on the precession frequency of the classical spin.\n\n\n
We consider a system of two superconducting islands, each of which is coupled to a bulk superconductor via Josephson tunneling. One of the islands represents a "Cooper-pair box", i.e. it is an effective two-level system. The other island has a smaller charging energy and approximates a harmonic oscillator. A capacitive interaction between the islands results in a dependence of the oscillator frequency on the quantum state of the box. Placing the latter in a coherent superposition of its eigenstates and exciting coherent oscillations in the large island will lead to a phase-shift of these oscillations depending on the box quantum state, thereby producing a coherent superposition of two "mesoscopically distinct" quantum states in the large island.
We have analyzed and measured the quantum coherent dynamics of a circuit containing two coupled superconducting charge qubits. Each qubit is based on a Cooper pair box connected to a reservoir electrode through a Josephson junction. Two qubits are coupled electrostatically by a small island overlapping both Cooper pair boxes. Quantum state manipulation ofthe qubit circuit is done by applying non-adiabatic voltage pulses to the common gate. We read out each qubit by means of probe electrodes connected to Cooper pair boxes through high-Ohmic tunnel junctions. With such a setup the measured pulse-induced probe currents are proportional to the probability for each qubit to have an extra Cooper pai1r after the manipulation. As expected from theory and observed experimentally the measured pulse-induced current in each probe has two frequency components whose position on the frequency axis can be externally controlled. This is a result ofthe inter-qubit coupling which is also responsible for the avoided level crossing that we observed in the qubits' spectra. Our simulations show that in the absence of decoherence and with a rectangular pulse shape the system remains entangled most ofthe time reaching maximally entangled states at certain instances.
A metallic electrode connected to electron reservoirs by tunnel junctions has a series of charge states corresponding to the number of excess electrons in the electrode. In contrast with the charge state of an atomic or molecular ion, the charge states of such an “island” involve a macroscopic number of conduction electrons of the island. Island charge states bear some resemblance with the photon number states of the cavity in cavity QED, the phase conjugate to the number of electrons being analogous to the phase of the field in the cavity. For a normal island, charge states decay irreversibly into charge states of lower energies. However, the ground state of a superconducting island connected to superconducting reservoirs can be a coherent superposition of charge states differing by two electrons (i.e. a Cooper pair). We describe an experiment in which this Josephson effect involving only one Cooper pair is measured.