Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Abstract: The formation and dissolution of silver nanowires plays a fundamental role in a broad range of resistive switching devices, fundamentally relying on the electrochemical metallization phenomenon. It was shown, however, that resistive switching may also appear in pure metallic nanowires lacking any silver-ion-hosting embedding environment, but this pure atomic switching mechanism fundamentally differs from the conventional electrochemical-metallization-based resistive switching. To facilitate the quantitative description of the former phenomenon, we investigate broad range of Ag atomic junctions with a special focus on the frequency-dependence and the fundamentally stochastic cycle-to-cycle variation of the switching threshold voltage. These devices are established in an ultra-high purity environment where electrochemical metallization can be excluded. The measured characteristics are successfully described by a vibrational pumping model, yielding consistent predictions for the weak frequency dependence and the large variance of the switching threshold voltage. We also demonstrate that electrochemical-metallization-based resistive switching and pure atomic switching may appear in the same device structure, and therefore the proper understanding of the pure atomic switching mechanism has a distinguished importance in silver-based electrochemical metallization cells.

Abstract: We examine possible ordered states of AA stacked bilayer graphene arising due to electron-electron coupling. We show that under certain assumptions the Hamiltonian of the system possesses an SU(4) symmetry. The multicomponent order parameter is described by a $4\times4$ matrix $\hat{Q}$, for which a mean-field self-consistency equation is derived. This equation allows Hermitian and non-Hermitian solutions. Hermitian solutions can be grouped into three topologically-distinct classes. First class corresponds to the charge density wave. Second class includes spin density wave, valley density wave, and spin-valley density wave. An ordered state in the third class is a combination of all the aforementioned density-wave types. For anti-Hermitian $\hat{Q}$ the ordered state is characterized by a spontaneous inter-layer loop currents flowing in the bilayer. Depending on the topological class of the solution these currents can carry charge, spin, valley, and spin-valley quanta. We also discuss the special case when matrix $\hat{Q}$ is not Hermitian and not anti-Hermitian. Utility and weak points of the proposed SU(4)-based classification scheme of the ordered states are analyzed.

Abstract: The integration of on-demand single photon sources in photonic circuits is a major prerequisite for on-chip quantum applications. Among the various high-quality sources, nanowire quantum dots can be efficiently coupled to optical waveguides because of their preferred emission direction along their growth direction. However, local tuning of the emission properties remains challenging. In this work, we transfer a nanowire quantum dot on a bulk lithium niobate substrate and show that its emission can be dynamically tuned by acousto-optical coupling with surface acoustic waves. The purity of the single photon source is preserved during the strain modulation. We further demonstrate that the transduction is maintained even with a SiO2 encapsulation layer deposited on top of the nanowire acting as the cladding of a photonic circuit. Based on these experimental findings and numerical simulations, we introduce a device architecture consisting of a nanowire quantum dot efficiently coupled to a thin film lithium niobate rib waveguide and strain-tunable by surface acoustic waves.

Abstract: An epitaxial semiconductor-superconductor nanowire is a superconducting system with a complex level structure originating from the hybridization: in addition to a dense set of higher-energy states derived predominantly from the metallic superconducting shell above the bulk gap $\Delta$, there is a small number of lower-energy proximitized states from the semiconducting core that define the induced gap $\Delta^*$. Nanostructures based on such nanowires can furthermore incorporate quantum dots to confine a handful of electrons in order to obtain localized spins for storing and manipulating quantum information. Magnetic properties of these composite devices are complex due to the interplay of exchange interaction, electron correlation effects and the spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We discuss the magnetic field dependence in three devices with different combinations of embedded quantum dots and superconducting islands. For strong fields, they show pinning of excitation energies to a uniform spacing, even if for weak fields they have non-universal properties with clearly different behaviors for even and odd number of confined electrons. We propose a quantum impurity model for hybrid devices that incorporates all relevant effects and solve it. We show that the model accounts for the key observations and permits unambiguous interpretation of phenomena in terms of many-particle states. In particular, we study the replicas of the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in the hybrid gap, their collapse and oscillation around zero bias with increasing field, and the strong smoothing effect of the SOC on these oscillations. We conclude that the SOC-induced mixing of many-body states is a generic mechanism for magnetic pinning and that it is likely to be a ubiquitous feature in hybrid semi-super nanowires.