Francesca Battista

Quantum Heat Fluctuations of Single-Particle Sources

Optimal single electron sources emit regular streams of particles, displaying no low-frequency charge current noise. Because of the wave packet nature of the emitted particles, the energy is, however, fluctuating, giving rise to heat current noise. We investigate theoretically this quantum source of heat noise for an emitter coupled to an electronic probe in the hot-electron regime. The distribution of temperature and potential fluctuations induced in the probe is shown to provide direct information on the single-particle wave function properties and display strong nonclassical features.

Experimental verification of reciprocity relations in quantum thermoelectric transport

Fundamental symmetries in thermoelectric quantum transport, beyond Onsagers relations, were predicted two decades ago but have to date not been observed in experiments. Recent works have predicted the symmetries to be sensitive to energy-dependent, inelastic scattering, raising the question whether they exist in practice. Here, we answer this question affirmatively by experimentally verifying the thermoelectric reciprocity relations in a four-terminal mesoscopic device where each terminal can be electrically and thermally biased individually. The linear-response thermoelectric coefficients are found to be symmetric under simultaneous reversal of magnetic field and exchange of injection and emission contacts. We also demonstrate a controllable breakdown of the reciprocity relations by increasing thermal bias, putting in prospect enhanced thermoelectric performance.

Adiabatic response and quantum thermoelectrics for ac driven quantum systems

Fil: Ludovico, Maria Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisica de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisica de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisica; Argentina

Proposal for nonlocal electron-hole turnstile in the quantum Hall regime

We present a theory for a mesoscopic turnstile that produces spatially separated streams of electrons and holes along edge states in the quantum Hall regime. For a broad range of frequencies in the nonadiabatic regime the turnstile operation is found to be ideal, producing one electron and one hole per cycle. The accuracy of the turnstile operation is characterized by the fluctuations of the transferred charge per cycle. The fluctuations are found to be negligibly small in the ideal regime.

Interference and multiparticle effects in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with single-particle sources

We investigate a Mach-Zehnder interferometer fed by two time-dependently driven single-particle sources, one of them placed in front of the interferometer, the other in the center of one of the arms. As long as the two sources are operated independently, the signal at the output of the interferometer shows an interference pattern, which we analyze in the spectral current, in the charge and energy currents, as well as in the charge current noise. The synchronization of the two sources in this specifically designed setup allows for collisions and absorptions of particles at different points of the interferometer, which have a strong impact on the detected signals. It introduces further relevant time scales and can even lead to a full suppression of the interference in some of the discussed quantities. The complementary interpretations of this phenomenon in terms of spectral properties and tunable two-particle effects (absorptions and quantum exchange effects) are put forward in this paper.

Spectral distribution and wave function of electrons emitted from a single-particle source in the quantum Hall regime

We investigate theoretically a scheme for spectroscopy of electrons emitted by an on-demand single-particle source. The total system, with an electron turnstile source and a single-level quantum dot spectrometer, is implemented with edge states in a conductor in the quantum Hall regime. Employing a Floquet scattering approach, the source and the spectrometer are analyzed within a single theoretical framework. The nonequilibrium distribution of the emitted electrons is analyzed via the direct current at the dot spectrometer. In the adiabatic and intermediate source frequency regimes, the distribution is found to be strongly peaked around the active resonant level of the turnstile. At high frequencies the distribution is split up into a set of fringes, resulting from the interplay of resonant transport through the turnstile and absorption or emission of individual Floquet quanta. For ideal source operation, with exactly one electron emitted per cycle, an expression for the single-electron wave function is derived.

Correlations between charge and energy current in ac-driven coherent conductors

We study transport in coherent conductors driven by a time-periodic bias voltage. We present results of the charge and energy noise and complement them by a study of the mixed noise, namely the zero-frequency correlator between charge and energy current. The mixed noise presents interference contributions and transport contributions, showing features different from those of charge and energy noise. The mixed noise can be accessed by measuring the correlator between the fluctuations of the power provided to the system and the charge current.

Statistics of temperature and potential fluctuations induced by coherent single particle sources

The prospect of time controlled information processing with individual electrons in nanoscale systems provides strong motivation for investigations of coupled charge and energy transport properties of single electron sources. Building on our recent work [F. Battista et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 126602 (2013)] we investigate theoretically the statistical properties of temperature and potential fluctuations in an electronic probe coupled to a generic single electron source. A detailed derivation of the cumulant generating function of the joint probability distribution is presented. Moreover, the probability distribution in stationary phase approximation is analysed.

Anderson-Mott transition in a disordered Hubbard chain with correlated hopping

Fil: Battista, Francesca. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisica de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisica de Buenos Aires; Argentina

Single particle sources and quantum heat fluctuations

The miniaturisation of electronic devices has been a well-known trend in engineering over almost 50 years. The technological advancement in the field can now provide an astonishing control of charge transport in mesoscopic structures. Single particle pumping, namely the control in time and space of the flow of an arbitrarily small number of electrons or holes, has been realised in various kind of structure with, in some cases, very high accuracies. The first half of the manuscript provides a brief overview of different experimental realisations of single particle sources. Though these devices allow to minimise charge fluctuations in the charge current, because of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the emitted particles are characterised by energy fluctuations. The consequences of it are of great relevance and presented in the second part of the paper.