Ramón Aguado

Photon-assisted transport in semiconductor nanostructures

Abstract In this review we focus on electronic transport through semiconductor nanostructures which are driven by ac fields. Along the review we describe the available experimental information on different nanostructures, like resonant tunneling diodes, superlattices or quantum dots, together with different theoretical techniques used in the study of photon-assisted transport. These theoretical tools such as, for instance, the Floquet formalism, the nonequilibrium Greens function technique or the density matrix technique, are suitable for tackling with problems where the interplay of different aspects like nonequilibrium, nonlinearity, quantum confinement or electron–electron interactions gives rise to many intriguing new phenomena. Along the review we give many examples which demonstrate the possibility of using appropriate ac fields to control/manipulate coherent quantum states in semiconductor nanostructures.

Spin-resolved Andreev levels and parity crossings in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanostructures

The physics and operating principles of hybrid superconductor-semiconductor devices rest ultimately on the magnetic properties of their elementary subgap excitations, usually called Andreev levels. Here we report a direct measurement of the Zeeman effect on the Andreev levels of a semiconductor quantum dot with large electron g-factor, strongly coupled to a conventional superconductor with a large critical magnetic field. This material combination allows spin degeneracy to be lifted without destroying superconductivity. We show that a spin-split Andreev level crossing the Fermi energy results in a quantum phase transition to a spin-polarized state, which implies a change in the fermionic parity of the system. This crossing manifests itself as a zero-bias conductance anomaly at finite magnetic field with properties that resemble those expected for Majorana modes in a topological superconductor. Although this resemblance is understood without evoking topological superconductivity, the observed parity transitions could be regarded as precursors of Majorana modes in the long-wire limit.

Zero-bias anomaly in a nanowire quantum dot coupled to superconductors.

We studied the low-energy states of spin-1/2 quantum dots defined in InAs/InP nanowires and coupled to aluminum superconducting leads. By varying the superconducting gap Δ with a magnetic field B we investigated the transition from strong coupling Δ << T(K) to weak-coupling Δ >> T(K), where T(K) is the Kondo temperature. Below the critical field, we observe a persisting zero-bias Kondo resonance that vanishes only for low B or higher temperatures, leaving the room to more robust subgap structures at bias voltages between Δ and 2Δ. For strong and approximately symmetric tunnel couplings, a Josephson supercurrent is observed in addition to the Kondo peak. We ascribe the coexistence of a Kondo resonance and a superconducting gap to a significant density of intragap quasiparticle states, and the finite-bias subgap structures to tunneling through Shiba states. Our results, supported by numerical calculations, own relevance also in relation to tunnel-spectroscopy experiments aiming at the observation of Majorana fermions in hybrid nanostructures.

Out-of-equilibrium kondo effect in double quantum dots

The out-of-equilibrium transport properties of a double quantum dot system in the Kondo regime are studied theoretically by means of a two-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian with interimpurity hopping. The Hamiltonian is solved by means of a nonequilibrium generalization of the slave-boson mean-field theory. It is demonstrated that measurements of the differential conductance dI/dV, for appropriate values of voltages and tunneling couplings, can give a direct observation of the coherent superposition between the many-body Kondo states of each dot. For large voltages and arbitrarily large interdot tunneling, there is a critical voltage above which the physical behavior of the system again resembles that of two decoupled quantum dots.

Coupling Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond to Superconducting Flux Qubits

We propose a method to achieve coherent coupling between nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and superconducting (SC) flux qubits. The resulting coupling can be used to create a coherent interaction between the spin states of distant NV centers mediated by the flux qubit. Furthermore, the magnetic coupling can be used to achieve a coherent transfer of quantum information between the flux qubit and an ensemble of NV centers. This enables a long-term memory for a SC quantum processor and possibly an interface between SC qubits and light.

ac-Driven double quantum dots as spin pumps and spin filters.

We propose and analyze a new scheme of realizing both spin filtering and spin pumping by using ac-driven double quantum dots in the Coulomb blockade regime. By calculating the current through the system in the sequential tunneling regime, we demonstrate that the spin polarization of the current can be controlled by tuning the parameters (amplitude and frequency) of the ac field. We also discuss spin relaxation and decoherence effects in the pumped current.

ac Josephson Effect in Finite-Length Nanowire Junctions with Majorana Modes

It has been predicted that superconducting junctions made with topological nanowires hosting Majorana bound states (MBS) exhibit an anomalous 4π-periodic Josephson effect. Finding an experimental setup with these unconventional properties poses, however, a serious challenge: for finite-length wires, the equilibrium supercurrents are always 2π periodic as anticrossings of states with the same fermionic parity are possible. We show, however, that the anomaly survives in the transient regime of the ac Josephson effect. Transients are, moreover, protected against decay by quasiparticle poisoning as a consequence of the quantum Zeno effect, which fixes the parity of Majorana qubits. The resulting long-lived ac Josephson transients may be effectively used to detect MBS.

Shot Noise Spectrum of Open Dissipative Quantum Two-Level Systems

We study the current noise spectrum of qubits under transport conditions in a dissipative bosonic environment. We combine (non-)Markovian master equations with correlation functions in Laplace space to derive a noise formula for both weak and strong coupling to the bath. The coherence-induced reduction of noise is diminished by weak dissipation and/or a large level separation (bias). For weak dissipation, we demonstrate that the dephasing and relaxation rates of the two-level systems can be extracted from noise. In the strong dissipation regime, the localization-delocalization transition becomes visible in the low-frequency noise.

Transport spectroscopy of NS nanowire junctions with Majorana fermions

We acknowledge the support of the CSIC JAE-Doc program and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Grants No.FIS2008-00124/FIS (P.S.-J) and No. FIS2009-08744 (E.P. and R.A.). This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY05-51164

SU(4) kondo effect in carbon nanotubes

We investigate theoretically the nonequilibrium transport properties of carbon nanotube quantum dots. Owing to the two-dimensional band structure of graphene, a double orbital degeneracy plays the role of a pseudospin, which is entangled with the spin. Quantum fluctuations between these 4 degrees of freedom result in an SU(4) Kondo effect at low temperatures. This exotic Kondo effect manifests as a four-peak splitting in the nonlinear conductance when an axial magnetic field is applied.