COLLOQUIUM

 

17:00 (CET) May 18,  Prof. Dr. Edward Laird (Lancaster University)

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Title:   Displacemon electromechanics: an approach towards testing quantum interference using a tethered vibrating carbon nanotube

 

Abstract:  

Suspended carbon nanotubes are mechanical resonators that are well suited for incorporation into quantum electronic circuits. They also combine high frequency and high quality factor in a way that makes them suitable for creating nanomechanical sensors and potentially for creating quantum superpositions. In the first part of this talk, I will describe an experiment in which a suspended nanotube hosting a single-electron transistor enters a classical coherent state, analogous to a laser mode but with phonons replacing photons [1]. In the second part, I will describe a proposal to incorporate a vibrating nanotube into a superconducting qubit and to operate the device as an interferometer. In this “displacemon” device, the aim is to observe interference between distinct centre-of-mass trajectories of the entire nanotube, consisting of 10^6 nucleons [2].

 

[1] Wen, Y., Ares, N., Schupp, F. J., Pei, T., Briggs, G. A. D., & Laird, E. A.

A coherent nanomechanical oscillator driven by single-electron tunnelling

Nature Physics 16 75 (2020)

 

[2] Khosla, K. E., Vanner, M. R., Ares, N., & Laird, E. A.

Displacemon electromechanics: how to detect quantum interference in a nanomechanical resonator

Physical Review X 8 021052 (2018)