We present a method for reading out the spin state of electrons in a quantum dot that is robust against charge noise and can be used even when the electron temperature exceeds the energy splitting ...between the states. The spin states are first correlated to different charge states using a spin dependence of the tunnel rates. A subsequent fast measurement of the charge on the dot then reveals the original spin state. We experimentally demonstrate the method by performing readout of the two-electron spin states, achieving a single-shot visibility of more than 80%. We find very long triplet-to-singlet relaxation times (up to several milliseconds), with a strong dependence on the in-plane magnetic field.
We employ tip-enhanced infrared near-field microscopy to study the plasmonic properties of epitaxial quasi-free-standing monolayer graphene on silicon carbide. The near-field images reveal ...propagating graphene plasmons, as well as a strong plasmon reflection at gaps in the graphene layer, which appear at the steps between the SiC terraces. When the step height is around 1.5 nm, which is two orders of magnitude smaller than the plasmon wavelength, the reflection signal reaches 20% of its value at graphene edges, and it approaches 50% for step heights as small as 5 nm. This intriguing observation is corroborated by numerical simulations and explained by the accumulation of a line charge at the graphene termination. The associated electromagnetic fields at the graphene termination decay within a few nanometers, thus preventing efficient plasmon transmission across nanoscale gaps. Our work suggests that plasmon propagation in graphene-based circuits can be tailored using extremely compact nanostructures, such as ultranarrow gaps. It also demonstrates that tip-enhanced near-field microscopy is a powerful contactless tool to examine nanoscale defects in graphene.
Controlling the energy flow processes and the associated energy relaxation rates of a light emitter is of fundamental interest and has many applications in the fields of quantum optics, ...photovoltaics, photodetection, biosensing and light emission. Advanced dielectric, semiconductor and metallic systems have been developed to tailor the interaction between an emitter and its environment. However, active control of the energy flow from an emitter into optical, electronic or plasmonic excitations has remained challenging. Here, we demonstrate in situ electrical control of the relaxation pathways of excited erbium ions, which emit light at the technologically relevant telecommunication wavelength of 1.5 μm. By placing the erbium at a few nanometres distance from graphene, we modify the relaxation rate by more than a factor of three, and control whether the emitter decays into electron-hole pairs, emitted photons or graphene near-infrared plasmons, confined to <15 nm from the graphene sheet. These capabilities to dictate optical energy transfer processes through electrical control of the local density of optical states constitute a new paradigm for active (quantum) photonics and can be applied using any combination of light emitters and two-dimensional materials.
The science and applications of electronics and optoelectronics have been driven for decades by progress in the growth of semiconducting heterostructures. Many applications in the infrared and ...terahertz frequency range exploit transitions between quantized states in semiconductor quantum wells (intersubband transitions). However, current quantum well devices are limited in functionality and versatility by diffusive interfaces and the requirement of lattice-matched growth conditions. Here, we introduce the concept of intersubband transitions in van der Waals quantum wells and report their first experimental observation. Van der Waals quantum wells are naturally formed by two-dimensional materials and hold unexplored potential to overcome the aforementioned limitations-they form atomically sharp interfaces and can easily be combined into heterostructures without lattice-matching restrictions. We employ near-field local probing to spectrally resolve intersubband transitions with a nanometre-scale spatial resolution and electrostatically control the absorption. This work enables the exploitation of intersubband transitions with unmatched design freedom and individual electronic and optical control suitable for photodetectors, light-emitting diodes and lasers.
As a two-dimensional semimetal, graphene offers clear advantages for plasmonic applications over conventional metals, such as stronger optical field confinement, in situ tunability, and relatively ...low intrinsic losses. However, the operational frequencies at which plasmons can be excited in graphene are limited by the Fermi energy E F, which in practice can be controlled electrostatically only up to a few tenths of an electronvolt. Higher Fermi energies open the door to novel plasmonic devices with unprecedented capabilities, particularly at mid-infrared and shorter-wave infrared frequencies. In addition, this grants us a better understanding of the interaction physics of intrinsic graphene phonons with graphene plasmons. Here, we present FeCl3-intercalated graphene as a new plasmonic material with high stability under environmental conditions and carrier concentrations corresponding to E F > 1 eV. Near-field imaging of this highly doped form of graphene allows us to characterize plasmons, including their corresponding lifetimes, over a broad frequency range. For bilayer graphene, in contrast to the monolayer system, a phonon-induced dipole moment results in increased plasmon damping around the intrinsic phonon frequency. Strong coupling between intrinsic graphene phonons and plasmons is found, supported by ab initio calculations of the coupling strength, which are in good agreement with the experimental data.
Isolating single molecules in the solid state has allowed fundamental experiments in basic and applied sciences. When cooled down to liquid helium temperature, certain molecules show transition lines ...that are tens of megahertz wide, limited by only the excited-state lifetime. The extreme flexibility in the synthesis of organic materials provides, at low costs, a wide palette of emission wavelengths and supporting matrices for such single chromophores. In the past few decades, their controlled coupling to photonic structures has led to an optimized interaction efficiency with light. Molecules can hence be operated as single-photon sources and as nonlinear elements with competitive performance in terms of coherence, scalability and compatibility with diverse integrated platforms. Moreover, they can be used as transducers for the optical read-out of fields and material properties, with the promise of single-quanta resolution in the sensing of charges and motion. We show that quantum emitters based on single molecules hold promise to play a key role in the development of quantum science and technologies.
Many promising optoelectronic devices, such as broadband photodetectors, nonlinear frequency converters, and building blocks for data communication systems, exploit photoexcited charge carriers in ...graphene. For these systems, it is essential to understand the relaxation dynamics after photoexcitation. These dynamics contain a sub-100 fs thermalization phase, which occurs through carrier–carrier scattering and leads to a carrier distribution with an elevated temperature. This is followed by a picosecond cooling phase, where different phonon systems play a role: graphene acoustic and optical phonons, and substrate phonons. Here, we address the cooling pathway of two technologically relevant systems, both consisting of high-quality graphene with a mobility >10 000 cm2 V–1 s–1 and environments that do not efficiently take up electronic heat from graphene: WSe2-encapsulated graphene and suspended graphene. We study the cooling dynamics using ultrafast pump–probe spectroscopy at room temperature. Cooling via disorder-assisted acoustic phonon scattering and out-of-plane heat transfer to substrate phonons is relatively inefficient in these systems, suggesting a cooling time of tens of picoseconds. However, we observe much faster cooling, on a time scale of a few picoseconds. We attribute this to an intrinsic cooling mechanism, where carriers in the high-energy tail of the hot-carrier distribution emit optical phonons. This creates a permanent heat sink, as carriers efficiently rethermalize. We develop a macroscopic model that explains the observed dynamics, where cooling is eventually limited by optical-to-acoustic phonon coupling. These fundamental insights will guide the development of graphene-based optoelectronic devices.
Isolated electronic and nuclear spins in solids are at present being actively explored for potential quantum-computing applications. Spin degrees of freedom provide an excellent quantum memory, owing ...to their weak magnetic interactions with the environment. For the same reason, however, it is difficult to achieve controlled interactions of spins over distances larger than tens of nanometres. Here we propose a new realization of a quantum data bus for spin qubits where spins are coupled to the motion of magnetized mechanical resonators through magnetic-field gradients. Provided that the mechanical system is charged, the magnetic moments associated with spin qubits can be effectively amplified to enable a coherent spin-spin coupling over long distances through Coulomb forces. Our approach is applicable to a wide class of electronic spin qubits, which can be localized near magnetized tips and can be used for the implementation of hybrid quantum-computing architectures. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Abstract
Conducting materials typically exhibit either diffusive or ballistic charge transport. When electron–electron interactions dominate, a hydrodynamic regime with viscous charge flow emerges
...1–13
. More stringent conditions eventually yield a quantum-critical Dirac-fluid regime, where electronic heat can flow more efficiently than charge
14–22
. However, observing and controlling the flow of electronic heat in the hydrodynamic regime at room temperature has so far remained elusive. Here we observe heat transport in graphene in the diffusive and hydrodynamic regimes, and report a controllable transition to the Dirac-fluid regime at room temperature, using carrier temperature and carrier density as control knobs. We introduce the technique of spatiotemporal thermoelectric microscopy with femtosecond temporal and nanometre spatial resolution, which allows for tracking electronic heat spreading. In the diffusive regime, we find a thermal diffusivity of roughly 2,000 cm
2
s
−1
, consistent with charge transport. Moreover, within the hydrodynamic time window before momentum relaxation, we observe heat spreading corresponding to a giant diffusivity up to 70,000 cm
2
s
−1
, indicative of a Dirac fluid. Our results offer the possibility of further exploration of these interesting physical phenomena and their potential applications in nanoscale thermal management.
Graphene is an attractive material for optoelectronics and photodetection applications because it offers a broad spectral bandwidth and fast response times. However, weak light absorption and the ...absence of a gain mechanism that can generate multiple charge carriers from one incident photon have limited the responsivity of graphene-based photodetectors to ∼10(-2) A W(-1). Here, we demonstrate a gain of ∼10(8) electrons per photon and a responsivity of ∼10(7) A W(-1) in a hybrid photodetector that consists of monolayer or bilayer graphene covered with a thin film of colloidal quantum dots. Strong and tunable light absorption in the quantum-dot layer creates electric charges that are transferred to the graphene, where they recirculate many times due to the high charge mobility of graphene and long trapped-charge lifetimes in the quantum-dot layer. The device, with a specific detectivity of 7 × 10(13) Jones, benefits from gate-tunable sensitivity and speed, spectral selectivity from the short-wavelength infrared to the visible, and compatibility with current circuit technologies.
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