Single Electron Emission Research Articles

Tailoring Single-Electron Emission Distributions in the Time-Energy Phase Space.

The precise characterization and control of single-electron wave functions emitted from a single-electron source are essential for advancing electron quantum optics. Here, we introduce a method for tailoring a single-electron emission distribution using energy filtering, enabling selective control of the distribution under various energy barrier conditions of the filter. The tailored electron is studied by reconstructing its Wigner distribution in the time-energy phase space using the continuous-variable tomography method. Our results reveal that the filtering cuts the portion of the distribution below the energy-barrier height of the filter in the time-energy space. While the filtering is demonstrated in a classical regime of the emitted electrons, we expect that this study significantly contributes to the design and implementation of advanced experiments toward quantum information processing based on single electrons.

Emission of single and few electrons in XENON1T and limits on light dark matter

Delayed single- and few-electron emissions plague dual-phase time projection chambers, limiting their potential to search for light-mass dark matter. This paper examines the origins of these events in the XENON1T experiment. Characterization of the intensity of delayed electron backgrounds shows that the resulting emissions are correlated, in time and position, with high-energy events and can effectively be vetoed. In this work we extend previous S2-only analyses down to a single electron. From this analysis, after removing the correlated backgrounds, we observe rates < 30 events/(electron*kg*day) in the region of interest spanning 1 to 5 electrons. We derive 90% confidence upper limits for dark matter-electron scattering, first direct limits on the electric dipole, magnetic dipole, and anapole interactions, and bosonic dark matter models, where we exclude new parameter space for dark photons and solar dark photons.

The electric field dependence of single electron emission in the PIXeY two-phase xenon detector

Dual phase xenon detectors are widely used in experimental searches for galactic dark matter particles. The origin of single electron backgrounds following prompt scintillation and proportional scintillation signals in these detectors is not fully understood, although there has been progress in recent years. In this paper, we describe single electron backgrounds in 83mKr calibration events and their correlation with drift and extraction fields, using the Particle Identification in Xenon at Yale (PIXeY) dual-phase xenon time projection chamber. The single electron background induced by the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) effect is measured, and its electric field dependence is quantified. The photoionization of grids and impurities by prompt scintillation and proportional scintillation also contributes to the single electron background.

Single-Electron Emission–Injection Transport in a Microstructure with Colloidal Quantum Dots of Narrow-Gap Semiconductors

Single-Electron Emission–Injection Transport in a Microstructure with Colloidal Quantum Dots of Narrow-Gap Semiconductors

Single-electron emission from degenerate quantum levels

Single-electron sources on-demand are requisite for a promising fully electronic platform for solid-state quantum information processing. Most of the experimentally realized sources use the fact that only one electron can be taken from a singly occupied quantum level. Here I take the next step and discuss emission from orbitally degenerate quantum levels that arise, for example, in quantum dots with a nontrivial ring topology. I show that degeneracy provides additional flexibility for single- and two-electron emission. Indeed, the small Aharonov-Bohm flux, which slightly lifts the degeneracy, is a powerful tool for changing the relative width of the emitted wave packets over a wide range. In a ring with one lead, even electrons emitted from completely degenerate levels can be separated in time if the driving potential changes at the appropriate rate. In a ring with two leads, electrons can be emitted to different leads if one of the leads has a bound state with Fermi energy at its end.

Phase-Coherent Dynamics of Quantum Devices with Local Interactions

This review illustrates how Local Fermi Liquid (LFL) theories describe the strongly correlated and coherent low-energy dynamics of quantum dot devices. This approach consists in an effective elastic scattering theory, accounting exactly for strong correlations. Here, we focus on the mesoscopic capacitor and recent experiments achieving a Coulomb-induced quantum state transfer. Extending to out-of-equilibrium regimes, aimed at triggered single electron emission, we illustrate how inelastic effects become crucial, requiring approaches beyond LFLs, shedding new light on past experimental data by showing clear interaction effects in the dynamics of mesoscopic capacitors.

Performance Limits of Graphene Hot Electron Emission Photoemitters

Hot electron emission from waveguide-integrated graphene has been recently shown to occur at optical power densities multiple orders of magnitude lower than that of metal tips excited by sub-work-function photons. However, the experimentally observed electron emission currents are small, which limits the practical uses of such a mechanism. Here, we explore the performance limits of hot electron emission in graphene through experimentally calibrated simulations. Two regimes of nonequilibrium emission in graphene are identified, (i) single particle hot electron emission, where an electron is excited by a photon and emitted before losing significant energy through scattering; and (ii) ensemble hot electron emission, where the photon source causes nonequilibrium heating of the electron population beyond the electron lattice temperature. It is shown that, through appropriate selection of photon energy, optical power density, and applied electric field, hot electron emission can be used to create ultrahigh current electron emitters with ultrafast temporal responses in both the single particle and ensemble heating regimes. These results suggest that, through appropriate design, hot electron emitters may overcome the limitations of thermionic and field emitters.

Results from a hidden photon dark matter search using a multi-cathode counter

Here we present measurements of the rates of emission of single electrons from the cathode of a proportional counter filled with a mixture of Ar + CH4 (10%) at 1 bar. We interpret the results as a possible photoelectric effect associated with hidden photons (HPs). Our results set upper limits for HPs from cold dark matter (CDM). We also discuss future options for searches for HPs from CDM using a multi-cathode counter technique.

A multi-cathode counter in a single-electron counting mode

We describe the operation of the multi-cathode counter developed by us. It has an aluminum alloy cathode and operates in single-electron counting mode. The calibration results are given. The gas gain was found from the calibration spectra. The electric fields and the operation of this detector in two configurations are described. Our original idea was to measure the effect of electrons emitted from the cathode surface according to the difference in count rates in two configurations. We found the optimal potential difference between the first and second cathodes in the two configurations using the calibration measurements of the count rates. In addition, the advantage of using a multi-cathode counter for measuring the intensity of single-electron emission from a metal is explained.

Correlated formation of the excited states of recoil and scattered ions in multiple electron capture collision of Ar8+ with CO2 and OCS

Multiple ionization events induced by low energy collisions between Ar8+ projectiles and linear triatomic molecular targets, CO2 and OCS, were studied in order to shed light on the correlation between the electronic states of the scattered ion and the ionic fragmentation processes. Position-sensitive time-of-flight measurements of all the recoil fragments, triggered by detection of a charge-selected scattered ion, allowed us to distinguish between ionic fragmentation processes in which different numbers of Auger electrons were emitted by the projectile, just after multiple electron capture. A strong correlation is found for triple capture collisions, between fragmentation with high kinetic energy and events when only single Auger electron emission takes place.

Electron pair emission from surfaces: Intensity relations

The emission of an electron pair upon single-photon absorption requires a finite electron-electron interaction. Therefore, double photoemission is a particularly sensitive tool to study the electron correlation in matter. This is supported by a recent theoretical work which predicts that the pair intensity is a direct reflection of the correlation strength. In order to explore the validity of this statement, we performed a study on a variety of materials. Among them are noble metals, transition metals, and insulators. The latter include transition metal oxides such as CoO and NiO which are also termed highly correlated. We find an increased pair emission rate of NiO and CoO compared to the metals which reach a factor of 10. We also discovered that an increase of the coincidence intensity is accompanied by an increase in the singles count rate. This demonstrates that the electron pair emission is an efficient process at surfaces contributing up to $15%$ to the single-electron emission in double photoemission. We performed also electron pair emission studies upon primary electron impact and find similar intensity relations.

Competition of single and double rescattering in the strong-field photoemission from dielectric nanospheres.

Nanostructures exposed to ultrashort waveform-controlled laser pulses enable the generation of enhanced and highly localized near fields with adjustable local electric field evolution. Here, we study dielectric SiO2 nanospheres (d = 100–700 nm) under strong carrier-envelope phase-controlled few-cycle laser pulses and perform a systematic theoretical analysis of the resulting near-field driven photoemission. In particular, we analyze the impacts of charge interaction and local field ellipticity on the near-field driven electron acceleration. Our semiclassical transport simulations predict strong quenching of the electron emission and enhanced electron energies due to the ionization induced space charge. Though single surface backscattering remains the main emission process for the considered parameter range, we find a substantial contribution of double rescattering that increases with sphere size and becomes dominant near the cutoff energy for the largest investigated spheres. The growing importance of the double recollision process is traced back to the increasing local field ellipticity via trajectory analysis and the corresponding initial to final state correlation. Finally, we compare the carrier-envelope phase-dependent emission of single and double recollision electrons and find that both exhibit a characteristic directional switching behavior.

Observation of delayed electron emission in a two-phase liquid xenon detector

Results of the experimental study of electron emission from liquid xenon via electroluminescence of the gas phase are presented. We report on observation of a peculiar kind of delayed electroluminescent signal following initial electroluminescence caused by ionizing particles. We also present the results of a study of spontaneous single electron emission following cosmic muon signals. It was found that the rate of spontaneous single electron signals strongly depends on the time passed since the initial electroluminescence happened. The analysis of experimental data showed that both spontaneous single electron signals and delayed electroluminescent signals are associated with ionization electrons which are trapped by the potential barrier at the interface.

On a Search for Hidden Photon CDM by a Multicathode Counter

We report a new technique of a multicathode counter (MCC) developed to search for hidden photon (HP) cold dark matter (CDM) with a mass from 5 to 500 eV. The method is suggested in the assumption that HP-photon mixing causes emission of single electrons from a metal cathode if the mass of hidden photonmγ′is greater than a work function of the metalφW. The measured effect from HP should be dependent onφWand on the structure of electronic shells of the metal used as a cathode. Potentially this can be used for a verification of the results obtained. Some preliminary results for the upper limit for mixing parameterχhave been obtained for HP with a mass from 5 eV to 10 keV as a pure illustration of the potential of this technique. The efforts are continued to refine the procedure of data treatment and to improve the work of MCC. A new detector with a more developed design is under construction.

Interaction of relativistic electrons with an intense laser pulse: High-order harmonic generation based on Thomson scattering

We investigate nonlinear Thomson scattering as a source of high-order harmonic radiation with the potential to enable attosecond light pulse generation. We present a new analytic solution of the electron’s relativistic equations of motion in the case of a short laser pulse with a sine-squared envelope. Based on the single electron emission, we compute and analyze the radiated amplitude and phase spectrum for a realistic electron bunch, with special attention to the correct initial values. These results show that the radiation spectrum of an electron bunch in head-on collision with a sufficiently strong laser pulse of sine-squared envelope has a smooth frequency dependence to allow for the synthesis of attosecond light pulses.

Single- or double-electron emission within the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function and Feshbach projection operator techniques

This work provides a unified theoretical treatment of the single and correlated double-electron emission from a general electronic system. Using Feshbach projection method, the states of interest are selected by the projection operator; the Feshbach-Schur map determines the effective Hamiltonian and the optical potential for the emitted electrons. On the other hand, the nonequilibrium Green's functions method is demonstrated to be a complementary approach and an explicit correspondence between both methods is established. For a self-contained exposition some results on single electron emission are re-derived using both formalisms. New insights and results are obtained for the correlated electron-pair emission: This includes the effective two-electron Hamiltonian, the explicit form of the Feshbach self-energy in terms of the many-body self-energies, and the diagrammatic expansion of the two-particle current. As an illustration of the diagrammatic technique the process of the two-particle emission assisted by the excitation of plasmons is explicitly worked out.

Frequency jumps in single chip microwave LC oscillators

We report on the experimental observation of oscillation frequency jumps in microwave LC oscillators fabricated using standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technologies. The LC oscillators, operating at a frequency of about 20 GHz, consist of a single turn planar coil, a metal-oxide-metal capacitor, and two cross-coupled metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors used as negative resistance network. At 300 K as well as at 77 K, the oscillation frequency is a continuous function of the oscillator bias voltage. At 4 K, frequency jumps as large as 30 MHz are experimentally observed. This behavior is tentatively attributed to the emission and capture of single electrons from defects and dopant atoms.

Improved models for synchrotron radiation sources in SHADOW

A technique to improve the description of synchrotron sources is proposed and applied to the ray tracing code SHADOW. Using a dedicated synchrotron radiation calculation code, it is possible to calculate the single electron emission, as well as the thick electron beam emission. Two methods will be introduced. The first simulates synchrotron radiation using the spatial electron distribution for the positions of the rays and the thick electron beam spectral-angular distribution in the far field for their directions and their energies. The second method derives the variation of the single electron spectral-angular distribution with respect to the electron direction and the electron energy, and simulates the rays emitted by each electron. A preprocessor for SHADOW has been developed to read the intensity distribution from an HDF5 file generated by SRW. The final rays have been used to simulate future beamlines and have been cross checked with the wavefront propagation method.

Laser pulse ionization of fixed-in-space H2O

We present a detailed study of the ionization probability of H2O induced by a short intense laser pulse. Within the strong-field approximation, we present total and differential ionization probabilities of the water molecule fixed in space. It is shown that the second highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO-1) dominates the single-electron emission process when the laser is polarized along the symmetry axis of the H2O molecule, and that the electron emission is in general favoured in the direction along the laser polarization direction.

Electron and hole Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry

We consider the electronic analog of the quantum optics Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer in a realistic condensed matter device based on single electron emission in chiral edge states. For electron-electron collisions we show that the measurement of the zero-frequency current correlations at the output of a quantum point contact produces a dip giving precious information on the electronic wave packets and coherence. As a feature truly unique to Fermi statistics and condensed matter, we show that two-particle interferences between electron and hole in the Fermi sea can produce a positive peak in the current correlations, which we study for realistic experimental parameters.