Sergio O. Valenzuela

Microwave-Induced Cooling of a Superconducting Qubit

We demonstrated microwave-induced cooling in a superconducting flux qubit. The thermal population in the first-excited state of the qubit is driven to a higher-excited state by way of a sideband transition. Subsequent relaxation into the ground state results in cooling. Effective temperatures as low as ≈3 millikelvin are achieved for bath temperatures of 30 to 400 millikelvin, a cooling factor between 10 and 100. This demonstration provides an analog to optical cooling of trapped ions and atoms and is generalizable to other solid-state quantum systems. Active cooling of qubits, applied to quantum information science, provides a means for qubit-state preparation with improved fidelity and for suppressing decoherence in multi-qubit systems.

Coherent quasiclassical dynamics of a persistent current qubit.

A new regime of coherent quantum dynamics of a qubit is realized at low driving frequencies in the strong driving limit. Coherent transitions between qubit states occur via the Landau-Zener process when the system is swept through an energy-level avoided crossing. The quantum interference mediated by repeated transitions gives rise to an oscillatory dependence of the qubit population on the driving-field amplitude and flux detuning. These interference fringes, which at high frequencies consist of individual multiphoton resonances, persist even for driving frequencies smaller than the decoherence rate, where individual resonances are no longer distinguishable. A theoretical model that incorporates dephasing agrees well with the observations.

Amplitude spectroscopy of a solid-state artificial atom

The energy-level structure of a quantum system, which has a fundamental role in its behaviour, can be observed as discrete lines and features in absorption and emission spectra. Conventionally, spectra are measured using frequency spectroscopy, whereby the frequency of a harmonic electromagnetic driving field is tuned into resonance with a particular separation between energy levels. Although this technique has been successfully employed in a variety of physical systems, including natural and artificial atoms and molecules, its application is not universally straightforward and becomes extremely challenging for frequencies in the range of tens to hundreds of gigahertz. Here we introduce a complementary approach, amplitude spectroscopy, whereby a harmonic driving field sweeps an artificial atom through the avoided crossings between energy levels at a fixed frequency. Spectroscopic information is obtained from the amplitude dependence of the system’s response, thereby overcoming many of the limitations of a broadband-frequency-based approach. The resulting ‘spectroscopy diamonds’, the regions in parameter space where transitions between specific pairs of levels can occur, exhibit interference patterns and population inversion that serve to distinguish the atom’s spectrum. Amplitude spectroscopy provides a means of manipulating and characterizing systems over an extremely broad bandwidth, using only a single driving frequency that may be orders of magnitude smaller than the energy scales being probed.

Graphene spintronics: puzzling controversies and challenges for spin manipulation

This article presents the current puzzling controversy between theory and experimental results concerning the mechanisms leading to spin relaxation in graphene-based materials. On the experimental side, it is surprising that regardless of the quality of the graphene monolayer, which is characterized by the carrier mobility, the typical Hanle precession measurements yield spin diffusion times (τs) in the order of τs ~ 0.1–1 ns (at low temperatures), which is several orders of magnitude below the theoretical estimates based on the expected low intrinsic spin–orbit coupling in graphene. The results are weakly dependent on whether graphene is deposited onto SiO2 or boron-nitride substrates or is suspended, with the mobility spanning 3 orders of magnitude. On the other hand, extraction form two-terminal magnetoresistance measurements, accounting for contact effects results in τs ~ 0.1 µs, and corresponding diffusion lengths of about 100 µm up to room temperature. Such discrepancy jeopardizes further progress towards spin manipulation on a lateral graphene two-dimensional platform. After a presentation of basic concepts, we here discuss state-of-the-art literature and the limits of all known approaches to describe spin transport in massless-Dirac fermions, in which the effects of strong local spin–orbit coupling ceases to be accessible with perturbative approaches. We focus on the limits of conventional views of spin transport in graphene and offer novel perspectives for further progress.

Pseudospin-driven spin relaxation mechanism in graphene

Spin relaxation in graphene is much faster than theoretically expected. Now, a scenario based on a mixing of spin and pseudospin degrees of freedom and defect-induced spatial spin–orbit coupling variations predicts longer spin relaxation times.

Strongly anisotropic spin relaxation in graphene–transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures at room temperature

A large enhancement in the spin–orbit coupling of graphene has been predicted when interfacing it with semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides. Signatures of such an enhancement have been reported, but the nature of the spin relaxation in these systems remains unknown. Here, we unambiguously demonstrate anisotropic spin dynamics in bilayer heterostructures comprising graphene and tungsten or molybdenum disulphide (WS2, MoS2). We observe that the spin lifetime varies over one order of magnitude depending on the spin orientation, being largest when the spins point out of the graphene plane. This indicates that the strong spin–valley coupling in the transition metal dichalcogenide is imprinted in the bilayer and felt by the propagating spins. These findings provide a rich platform to explore coupled spin–valley phenomena and offer novel spin manipulation strategies based on spin relaxation anisotropy in two-dimensional materials.Large spin–orbit coupling can be induced when graphene interfaces with semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, leading to strongly anisotropic spin dynamics. As a result, orientation-dependent spin relaxation is observed.

Spin hall effect and origins of nonlocal resistance in adatom-decorated graphene

Recent experiments reporting an unexpectedly large spin Hall effect (SHE) in graphene decorated with adatoms have raised a fierce controversy. We apply numerically exact Kubo and Landauer-Büttiker formulas to realistic models of gold-decorated disordered graphene (including adatom clustering) to obtain the spin Hall conductivity and spin Hall angle, as well as the nonlocal resistance as a quantity accessible to experiments. Large spin Hall angles of ∼0.1 are obtained at zero temperature, but their dependence on adatom clustering differs from the predictions of semiclassical transport theories. Furthermore, we find multiple background contributions to the nonlocal resistance, some of which are unrelated to the SHE or any other spin-dependent origin, as well as a strong suppression of the SHE at room temperature. This motivates us to design a multiterminal graphene geometry which suppresses these background contributions and could, therefore, quantify the upper limit for spin-current generation in two-dimensional materials.

Large-amplitude driving of a superconducting artificial atom

Superconducting persistent-current qubits are quantum-coherent artificial atoms with multiple, tunable energy levels. In the presence of large-amplitude harmonic excitation, the qubit state can be driven through one or more of the constituent energy-level avoided crossings. The resulting Landau–Zener–Stückelberg (LZS) transitions mediate a rich array of quantum-coherent phenomena. We review here three experimental works based on LZS transitions: Mach–Zehnder-type interferometry between repeated LZS transitions, microwave-induced cooling, and amplitude spectroscopy. These experiments exhibit a remarkable agreement with theory, and are extensible to other solid-state and atomic qubit modalities. We anticipate they will find application to qubit state-preparation and control methods for quantum information science and technology.

Pulse imaging and nonadiabatic control of solid-state artificial atoms

Transitions in an artificial atom, driven nonadiabatically through an energy-level avoided crossing, can be controlled by carefully engineering the driving protocol. We have driven a superconducting persistent-current qubit with a large-amplitude radio-frequency field. By applying a biharmonic wave form generated by a digital source, we demonstrate a mapping between the amplitude and phase of the harmonics produced at the source and those received by the device. This allows us to image the actual wave form at the device. This information is used to engineer a desired time dependence, as confirmed by the detailed comparison with a simulation.

Spin precession in anisotropic media

We generalize the diffusive model for spin injection and detection in nonlocal spin structures to account for spin precession under an applied magnetic field in an anisotropic medium, for which the spin lifetime is not unique and depends on the spin orientation. We demonstrate that the spin precession (Hanle) line shape is strongly dependent on the degree of anisotropy and on the orientation of the magnetic field. In particular, we show that the anisotropy of the spin lifetime can be extracted from the measured spin signal, after dephasing in an oblique magnetic field, by using an analytical formula with a single fitting parameter. Alternatively, after identifying the fingerprints associated with the anisotropy, we propose a simple scaling of the Hanle line shapes at specific magnetic field orientations that results in a universal curve only in the isotropic case. The deviation from the universal curve can be used as a complementary means of quantifying the anisotropy by direct comparison with the solution of our generalized model. Finally, we applied our model to graphene devices and find that the spin relaxation for graphene on silicon oxide is isotropic within our experimental resolution.