Photon-assisted Tunneling Research Articles

Intra-cavity photon-assisted tunneling collector-base voltage-mediated electron-hole spontaneous-stimulated recombination transistor laser

Optical absorption in a p-n junction diode for a direct-gap semiconductor can be enhanced by photon-assisted tunneling in the presence of a static or dynamic electrical field. In the transistor laser, the coherent photons generated at the base quantum-well interact with the collector field and “assist” optical cavity electron tunneling from the valence band of the base to the conduction band states of the collector. In the present work, we study the cavity coherent photon intensity effect on intra-cavity photon-assisted tunneling (ICPAT) in the transistor laser and realize photon-field enhanced optical absorption. This ICPAT in a transistor laser is the unique property of voltage (field) modulation and the basis for ultrahigh speed direct laser modulation and switching.

AC-field-induced quantum phase transitions in density of states

We investigate the joint effects of the intralead electron interaction and an external alternating gate voltage on the time-averaged local density of states (DOSs) of a quantum dot coupled to two Luttinger-liquid leads in the Kondo regime. A rich dependence of the DOSs on the driving amplitude and intralead interaction is demonstrated. We show that the feature is quite different for different interaction strengths in the presence of the ac field. It is shown that the photon-assisted transport processes cause an additional splitting of the Kondo peak or dip, which exhibits photon-assisted single-channel (1CK) or two-channel Kondo (2CK) physics behavior. The phase transition between photon-assisted 1CK and 2CK physics occurs when the interaction strength is moderately strong. The inelastic channels associated with photon-assisted electron tunneling can dominate electron transport for weak interaction when the ac amplitude is greater than the frequency by one order of magnitude. In the limit of strong interaction the DOSs scale as a power-law behavior which is strongly affected by the ac field.

Topological phases of shaken quantum Ising lattices

The quantum compass model consists of a two-dimensional square spin lattice where the orientation of the spin–spin interactions depends on the spatial direction of the bonds. It has remarkable symmetry properties and the ground state shows topological degeneracy. The implementation of the quantum compass model in quantum simulation setups like ultracold atoms and trapped ions is far from trivial, since spin interactions in those systems typically are independent of the spatial direction. Ising spin interactions, on the contrary, can be induced and controlled in atomic setups with state-of-the art experimental techniques. In this work, we show how the quantum compass model on a rectangular lattice can be simulated by the use of the photon-assisted tunneling induced by periodic drivings on a quantum Ising spin model. We describe a procedure to adiabatically prepare one of the doubly degenerate ground states of this model by adiabatically ramping down a transverse magnetic field, with surprising differences depending on the parity of the lattice size. Exact diagonalizations confirm the validity of this approach for small lattices. Specific implementations of this scheme are presented with ultracold atoms in optical lattices in the Mott insulator regime, as well as with Rydberg atoms.

Quantum heat engine based on photon-assisted Cooper pair tunneling

We propose and analyze a simple mesoscopic quantum heat engine that exhibits both high-power and high-efficiency. The system consists of a biased Josephson junction coupled to two microwave cavities, with each cavity coupled to a thermal bath. Resonant Cooper pair tunneling occurs with the exchange of photons between cavities, and a temperature difference between the baths can naturally lead to a current against the voltage, and hence work. As a consequence of the unique properties of Cooper-pair tunneling, the heat current is completely separated from the charge current. This combined with the strong energy-selectivity of the process leads to an extremely high efficiency.

Resonant second-harmonic generation in a ballistic graphene transistor with an ac-driven gate

We report a theoretical study of time-dependent transport in a ballistic graphene field effect transistor. We develop a model based on Floquet theory describing Dirac electron transmission through a harmonically driven potential barrier. Photon-assisted tunneling results in excitation of quasibound states at the barrier. Under resonance condition, the excitation of the quasibound states leads to promotion of higher-order sidebands and enhanced higher harmonics of the source-drain conductance. The resonances in the main transmission channel are of the Fano form, while they are of the Breit-Wigner form for sidebands. We discuss the possibility of utilizing the resonances in prospective ballistic high-frequency devices, in particular frequency multipliers.

Controlled Population of Floquet-Bloch States via Coupling to Bose and Fermi Baths

External driving is emerging as a promising tool for exploring new phases in quantum systems. The intrinsically non-equilibrium states that result, however, are challenging to describe and control. We study the steady states of a periodically driven one-dimensional electronic system, including the effects of radiative recombination, electron-phonon interactions, and the coupling to an external fermionic reservoir. Using a kinetic equation for the populations of the Floquet eigenstates, we show that the steady-state distribution can be controlled using the momentum and energy relaxation pathways provided by the coupling to phonon and Fermi reservoirs. In order to utilize the latter, we propose to couple the system and reservoir via an energy filter which suppresses photon-assisted tunneling. Importantly, coupling to these reservoirs yields a steady state resembling a band insulator in the Floquet basis. The system exhibits incompressible behavior, while hosting a small density of excitations. We discuss transport signatures, and describe the regimes where insulating behavior is obtained. Our results give promise for realizing Floquet topological insulators.

Photon-assisted tunneling through a topological superconductor with Majorana bound states

Employing the Keldysh Nonequilibrium Green’s function method, we investigate time-dependent transport through a topological superconductor with Majorana bound states in the presence of a high frequency microwave field. It is found that Majorana bound states driven by photon-assisted tunneling can absorb(emit) photons and the resulting photon-assisted tunneling side band peaks can split the Majorana bound state that then appears at non-zero bias. This splitting breaks from the current opinion that Majorana bound states appear only at zero bias and thus provides a new experimental method for detecting Majorana bound states in the Non-zero-energy mode. We not only demonstrate that the photon-assisted tunneling side band peaks are due to Non-zero-energy Majorana bound states, but also that the height of the photon-assisted tunneling side band peaks is related to the intensity of the microwave field. It is further shown that the time-varying conductance induced by the Majorana bound states shows negative values for a certain period of time, which corresponds to a manifestation of the phase coherent time-varying behavior in mesoscopic systems.

Nonlinear nanocircuitry based on quantum tunneling effects

Abstract

Quantization of the superconducting energy gap in an intense microwave field

We study photon assisted tunneling in Nb/AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions. A quantitative calibration of the microwave field in the junction allowed direct verification of the quantum efficiency of microwave photon detection by the junctions. We observe that voltages of photon assisted tunneling steps vary both with the microwave power and the tunneling current. However, this variation is not monotonous, but staircase-like. The phenomenon is caused by mutual locking of positive and negative step series. A similar locking is observed with Shapiro steps. As a result the superconducting gap assumes quantized values equal to multiples of the quarter of the photon energy. The quantization is a manifestation of nonequilibrium tuning (suppression or enhancement) of superconductivity by the microwave field.

Optical pulse generation in a transistor laser via intra-cavity photon-assisted tunneling and excess base carrier redistribution

For a direct-gap semiconductor (e.g., a p-n junction), photon-assisted tunneling is known to exhibit a high nonlinear absorption. In a transistor laser, as discussed here, the coherent photons generated at the quantum well interact with the collector junction field and “assist” electron tunneling from base to collector, thus resulting in the nonlinear modulation of the laser and the realization of optical pulse generation. 1 and 2 GHz optical pulses are demonstrated in the transistor laser using collector voltage control.

Modulation-assisted tunneling in laser-fabricated photonic Wannier–Stark ladders

We observe Wannier–Stark (W–S) localization in curved photonic lattices, realized using arrays of evanescently coupled optical waveguides. By correctly tuning the strength of inter-site coupling in the lattice, we observe that W–S states become increasingly localized, and eventually fully localized to one site, as the curvature of the lattice is increased. We then demonstrate that tunneling can be successfully restored in the lattice by applying a resonant sinusoidal modulation to the lattice position, an effect that is a direct analogue of photon-assisted tunneling. This precise tuning of the tunneling matrix elements, through resonant modulation-assisted tunneling, opens a novel route for the creation of gauge fields in laser-fabricated photonic lattices.

Adiabatic quantum pump in a zigzag graphene nanoribbon junction**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 110704033), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK2010416), and the Natural Science Foundation for Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. 13KJB140005).

The adiabatic electron transport is theoretically studied in a zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) junction with two time-dependent pumping electric fields. By modeling a ZGNR p–n junction and applying the Keldysh Green’s function method, we find that a pumped charge current is flowing in the device at a zero external bias, which mainly comes from the photon-assisted tunneling process and the valley selection rule in an even-chain ZGNR junction. The pumped charge current and its ON and OFF states can be efficiently modulated by changing the system parameters such as the pumping frequency, the pumping phase difference, and the Fermi level. A ferromagnetic ZGNR device is also studied to generate a pure spin current and a fully polarized spin current due to the combined spin pump effect and the valley valve effect. Our finding might pave the way to manipulate the degree of freedom of electrons in a graphene-based electronic device.

Interaction-dependent photon-assisted tunneling in optical lattices: a quantum simulator of strongly-correlated electrons and dynamical Gauge fields

We introduce a scheme that combines photon-assisted tunneling (PAT) by a moving optical lattice with strong Hubbard interactions, and allows for the quantum simulation of paradigmatic quantum many-body models. We show that, in a certain regime, this quantum simulator yields an effective Hubbard Hamiltonian with tunable bond–charge interactions, a model studied in the context of strongly-correlated electrons. In a different regime, we show how to exploit a correlated destruction of tunneling to explore Nagaoka ferromagnetism at finite Hubbard repulsion. By changing the photon-assisted tunneling parameters, we can also obtain a t-J model with independently controllable tunneling t, super-exchange interaction J, and even a Heisenberg–Ising anisotropy. Hence, the full phase diagram of this paradigmatic model becomes accessible to cold-atom experiments, departing from the region allowed by standard single-band Hubbard Hamiltonians in the strong-repulsion limit. We finally show that, by generalizing the PAT scheme, the quantum simulator yields models of dynamical Gauge fields, where atoms of a given electronic state dress the tunneling of the atoms with a different internal state, leading to Peierls phases that mimic a dynamical magnetic field.

Microwave Photon-Assisted Incoherent Cooper-Pair Tunneling in a Josephson STM

We have observed photon-assisted Cooper-pair tunneling in an atomic-scale Josephson junction formed between a superconducting Nb tip and a superconducting Nb sample in a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) at 30 mK. High-resolution tunneling spectroscopy data show a zero-bias conduction peak and other sharp sub-gap peaks from coupling of the STM junction to resonances in the electromagnetic environment. The sub-gap peaks respond to incident microwave radiation by splitting into multiple peaks with the position and height depending on the frequency and amplitude of the microwaves. The inter-peak spacing shows that the charge carriers are Cooper pairs, rather than quasiparticles, and the power dependence reveals that the current originates from photon-assisted phase-incoherent tunneling of pairs, rather than the more conventional phase-coherent tunneling of pairs that yields Shapiro steps.

Terahertz Field Enhancement and Photon-Assisted Tunneling in Single-Molecule Transistors.

We have investigated the electron transport in single-C_{60}-molecule transistors under the illumination of intense monochromatic terahertz (THz) radiation. By employing an antenna structure with a sub-nm-wide gap, we concentrate THz radiation beyond the diffraction limit and focus it onto a single molecule. Photon-assisted tunneling (PAT) in the single molecule transistors is observed in both the weak-coupling and Kondo regimes. The THz power dependence of the PAT conductance indicates that when the incident THz intensity is a few tens of mW, the THz field induced at the molecule exceeds 100 kV/cm, which is enhanced by a factor of ~10^{5} from the field in the free space.

Photon-Inhibited Topological Transport in Quantum Well Heterostructures.

Here we provide a picture of transport in quantum well heterostructures with a periodic driving field in terms of a probabilistic occupation of the topologically protected edge states in the system. This is done by generalizing methods from the field of photon-assisted tunneling. We show that the time dependent field dresses the underlying Hamiltonian of the heterostructure and splits the system into sidebands. Each of these sidebands is occupied with a certain probability which depends on the drive frequency and strength. This leads to a reduction in the topological transport signatures of the system because of the probability to absorb or emit a photon. Therefore when the voltage is tuned to the bulk gap the conductance is smaller than the expected 2e(2)/h. We refer to this as photon-inhibited topological transport. Nevertheless, the edge modes reveal their topological origin in the robustness of the edge conductance to disorder and changes in model parameters. In this work the analogy with photon-assisted tunneling allows us to interpret the calculated conductivity and explain the sum rule observed by Kundu and Seradjeh.

Rectennas at optical frequencies: How to analyze the response

Optical rectennas, antenna-coupled diode rectifiers that receive optical-frequency electromagnetic radiation and convert it to DC output, have been proposed for use in harvesting electromagnetic radiation from a blackbody source. The operation of these devices is qualitatively different from that of lower-frequency rectennas, and their design requires a new approach. To that end, we present a method to determine the rectenna response to high frequency illumination. It combines classical circuit analysis with classical and quantum-based photon-assisted tunneling response of a high-speed diode. We demonstrate the method by calculating the rectenna response for low and high frequency monochromatic illumination, and for radiation from a blackbody source. Such a blackbody source can be a hot body generating waste heat, or radiation from the sun.

Coherent revival of tunneling

We introduce a tunneling effect by a driving field, referred to as coherent revival of tunneling (CRT), corresponding to complete tunneling (transmission coefficient $=1$) that is revived from the circumstance of total reflection (transmission coefficient $\ensuremath{\approx}0$) through application of an appropriate perpendicular high-frequency ac field. To illustrate CRT, we simulate electron transport through fish-bone-like quantum-dot arrays by using single-particle Green's functions along with Floquet theory, and we explore the corresponding current-field amplitude characteristics as well as current-polarization characteristics. In regard to the two characteristics, we show that CRT exhibits entirely different features than coherent destruction of tunneling and photon-assisted tunneling. We also discuss two practical conditions for experimental realization of CRT.

Measuring the coherence of charge states in undoped GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum dots with photon-assisted tunneling

Photon-assisted tunneling is used to study coherent properties of a charge qubit which is formed in an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. We found the charge relaxation time T1 to be around 15 ns and the inhomogeneous decoherence time to be around 330 ps at an electron temperature of 280 mK. This may be slightly better than that previously reported for doped devices, considering its temperature dependence. We discuss the role of donor fluctuation on the charge state coherence and possible ways for making improvements in the undoped devices.

Modulatable optical radiators and metasurfaces based on quantum nanoantennas

We investigate the tunable and switchable optical radiators and metamaterials formed by metallic nanodipole antennas with submicroscopic gaps (1.2 nm), of which linear and third-order nonlinear quantum conductivities are observed due to the photon-assisted tunneling effect. The quantum conductivities induced at the nanogap are relevant to power dissipations, which can be enhanced by the strongly localized optical fields associated with the plasmonic resonance. We demonstrate that the scattering property of an individual quantum nanoantenna and the transparency of a metamasurface constituted of it can be tuned by electrostatically controlling the linear conductivity (electronic tuning) or by adjusting the irradiation intensity that varies the nonlinear quantum conductivity (all-optical tuning).