Mechanical Detection of the De Haas-van Alphen Effect in Graphene.

In our work, we study the dynamics of a graphene Corbino disk supported by a gold mechanical resonator in the presence of a magnetic field. We demonstrate here that our graphene/gold mechanical structure exhibits a nontrivial resonance frequency dependence on the applied magnetic field, showing how this feature is indicative of the de Haas-van Alphen effect in the graphene Corbino disk. Relying on the mechanical resonances of the Au structure, our detection scheme is essentially independent of the material considered and can be applied for dHvA measurements on any conducting 2D material. In particular, the scheme is expected to be an important tool in studies of centrosymmetric transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) crystals, shedding new light on hidden magnetization and interaction effects.

Electrical Low-Frequency 1/fγ Noise Due to Surface Diffusion of Scatterers on an Ultra-low-Noise Graphene Platform.

Low-frequency 1/f γ noise is ubiquitous, even in high-end electronic devices. Recently, it was found that adsorbed O2 molecules provide the dominant contribution to flux noise in superconducting quantum interference devices. To clarify the basic principles of such adsorbate noise, we have investigated low-frequency noise, while the mobility of surface adsorbates is varied by temperature. We measured low-frequency current noise in suspended monolayer graphene Corbino samples under the influence of adsorbed Ne atoms. Owing to the extremely small intrinsic noise of suspended graphene, we could resolve a combination of 1/f γ and Lorentzian noise induced by the presence of Ne. We find that the 1/f γ noise is caused by surface diffusion of Ne atoms and by temporary formation of few-Ne-atom clusters. Our results support the idea that clustering dynamics of defects is relevant for understanding of 1/f noise in metallic systems.

Dry transfer method for suspended graphene on lift-off-resist: simple ballistic devices with Fabry-Pérot interference.

We demonstrate a fabrication scheme for clean suspended structures using chemical-vapor-deposition-grown graphene and a dry transfer method on lift-off-resist-coated substrates to facilitate suspended graphene nanoelectronic devices for technological applications. It encompasses the demands for scalable fabrication as well as for ultra-fast response due to weak coupling to environment. The fabricated devices exhibited initially a weak field-effect response with substantial positive (p) doping which transformed into weak negative (n) doping upon current annealing at the temperature of 4 K. With increased annealing current, n-doping gradually decreased while the Dirac peak position approached zero in gate voltage. An ultra-low residual charge density of 9 × 108 cm-2 and a mobility of 1.9 × 105 cm2 V-1 s-1 were observed. Our samples display clear Fabry-Pérot (FP) conductance oscillation which indicates ballistic electron transport. The spacings of the FP oscillations are found to depend on the charge density in a manner that agrees with theoretical modeling based on Klein tunneling of Dirac particles. The ultra-low residual charge, the FP oscillations with density dependent period, and the high mobility prove the excellent quality of our suspended graphene devices. Owing to its simplicity, scalability and robustness, this fabrication scheme enhances possibilities for production of suspended, high-quality, two-dimensional-material structures for novel electronic applications.

Charge sensitivity enhancement via mechanical oscillation in suspended carbon nanotube devices.

Single electron transistors (SETs) fabricated from single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be operated as highly sensitive charge detectors reaching sensitivity levels comparable to metallic radio frequency SETs (rf-SETs). Here, we demonstrate how the charge sensitivity of the device can be improved by using the mechanical oscillations of a single-walled carbon nanotube quantum dot. To optimize the charge sensitivity δQ, we drive the mechanical resonator far into the nonlinear regime and bias it to an operating point where the mechanical third order nonlinearity is canceled out. This way we enhance δQ, from 6 µe/(Hz)(1/2) for the static case to 0.97 µe/(Hz)(1/2) at a probe frequency of ∼1.3 kHz.

Electron-phonon coupling in suspended graphene: supercollisions by ripples.

Using electrical transport experiments and shot noise thermometry, we find strong evidence that "supercollision" scattering processes by flexural modes are the dominant electron-phonon energy transfer mechanism in high-quality, suspended graphene around room temperature. The power law dependence of the electron-phonon coupling changes from cubic to quintic with temperature. The change of the temperature exponent by two is reflected in the quadratic dependence on chemical potential, which is an inherent feature of two-phonon quantum processes.

Wafer-Scale Fabrication of Wearable All-Carbon Nanotube Photodetector Arrays.

With electronic devices evolving toward portable and high-performance wearables, the constraints of complex and wet processing technologies become apparent. This study presents a scalable photolithography/chemical-free method for crafting wearable all-carbon nanotube (CNT) photodetector device arrays. Laser-assisted patterning and dry deposition techniques directly assemble gas-phase CNTs into flexible devices without any lithography or lift-off processes. The resulting wafer-scale all-CNT photodetector arrays showcase excellent uniformity, wearability, environmental stability, and notable broadband photoresponse, boasting a high responsivity of 44 AW-1 and a simultaneous detectivity of 1.9 × 109 Jones. This research provides an efficient, versatile, and scalable strategy for manufacturing wearable all-CNT device arrays, allowing widespread adoption in wearable optoelectronics and multifunctional sensors.

Stamp transferred suspended graphene mechanical resonators for radio frequency electrical readout.

We present a simple micromanipulation technique to transfer suspended graphene flakes onto any substrate and to assemble them with small localized gates into mechanical resonators. The mechanical motion of the graphene is detected using an electrical, radio frequency (RF) reflection readout scheme where the time-varying graphene capacitor reflects a RF carrier at f = 5-6 GHz producing modulation sidebands at f ± f(m). A mechanical resonance frequency up to f(m) = 178 MHz is demonstrated. We find both hardening/softening Duffing effects on different samples and obtain a critical amplitude of ~40 pm for the onset of nonlinearity in graphene mechanical resonators. Measurements of the quality factor of the mechanical resonance as a function of dc bias voltage V(dc) indicates that dissipation due to motion-induced displacement currents in graphene electrode is important at high frequencies and large V(dc).

Electron-phonon coupling in copper intercalated Bi[Formula: see text]Se[Formula: see text].

We report charge and heat transport studies in copper-intercalated topological insulator Bi[Formula: see text]Se[Formula: see text] hybrid devices. Measured conductivity shows impact of quantum corrections, electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. Our shot noise measurements reveal that heat flux displays a crossover between [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with the increase of temperature. The results might be explained by a model of inelastic electron scattering on disorder, increasing the role of transverse acoustic phonons in the electron-phonon coupling process.

Miniaturized spectrometers with a tunable van der Waals junction.

Miniaturized computational spectrometers, which can obtain incident spectra using a combination of device spectral responses and reconstruction algorithms, are essential for on-chip and implantable applications. Highly sensitive spectral measurement using a single detector allows the footprints of such spectrometers to be scaled down while achieving spectral resolution approaching that of benchtop systems. We report a high-performance computational spectrometer based on a single van der Waals junction with an electrically tunable transport-mediated spectral response. We achieve high peak wavelength accuracy (∼0.36 nanometers), high spectral resolution (∼3 nanometers), broad operation bandwidth (from ∼405 to 845 nanometers), and proof-of-concept spectral imaging. Our approach provides a route toward ultraminiaturization and offers unprecedented performance in accuracy, resolution, and operation bandwidth for single-detector computational spectrometers.

Microwave reflection measurement of critical currents in a nanotube Josephson transistor with a resistive environment.

A scheme for measuring small intrinsic critical currents I(c) in nanoscale devices is described. Changes in Josephson inductance L(J) are converted to frequency variations that are recorded via microwave reflection measurements at 700-800 MHz. The critical current is determined from the frequency shift of the reflection magnitude at zero phase bias assuming a sinusoidal current-phase relation. The method is used to study a multiwalled carbon nanotube transistor with Pd/Nb contacts inside a resistive on-chip environment. We observe gate-tunable critical currents up to I(c) ∼ 8 nA corresponding to L(J) > 40 nH. The method presented is also applicable to devices shunted by closed superconducting loops.

Strong gate coupling of high-Q nanomechanical resonators.

The detection of mechanical vibrations near the quantum limit is a formidable challenge since the displacement becomes vanishingly small when the number of phonon quanta tends toward zero. An interesting setup for on-chip nanomechanical resonators is that of coupling them to electrical microwave cavities for detection and manipulation. Here we show how to achieve a large cavity coupling energy of up to (2π) 1 MHz/nm for metallic beam resonators at tens of megahertz. We used focused ion beam (FIB) cutting to produce uniform slits down to 10 nm, separating patterned resonators from their gate electrodes, in suspended aluminum films. We measured the thermomechanical vibrations down to a temperature of 25 mK, and we obtained a low number of about 20 phonons at the equilibrium bath temperature. The mechanical properties of Al were excellent after FIB cutting, and we recorded a quality factor of Q ∼ 3 × 10(5) for a 67 MHz resonator at a temperature of 25 mK. Between 0.2 and 2 K we find that the dissipation is linearly proportional to the temperature.

Critical current fluctuations in graphene Josephson junctions.

We have studied 1/f noise in critical current [Formula: see text] in h-BN encapsulated monolayer graphene contacted by NbTiN electrodes. The sample is close to diffusive limit and the switching supercurrent with hysteresis at Dirac point amounts to [Formula: see text] nA. The low frequency noise in the superconducting state is measured by tracking the variation in magnitude and phase of a reflection carrier signal [Formula: see text] at 600-650 MHz. We find 1/f critical current fluctuations on the order of [Formula: see text] per unit band at 1 Hz. The noise power spectrum of critical current fluctuations [Formula: see text] measured near the Dirac point at large, sub-critical rf-carrier amplitudes obeys the law [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text] Hz. Our results point towards significant fluctuations in [Formula: see text] originating from variation of the proximity induced gap in the graphene junction.

Stark effect and generalized Bloch-Siegert shift in a strongly driven two-level system.

A superconducting qubit was driven in an ultrastrong fashion by an oscillatory microwave field, which was created by coupling via the nonlinear Josephson energy. The observed Stark shifts of the "atomic" levels are so pronounced that corrections even beyond the lowest-order Bloch-Siegert shift are needed to properly explain the measurements. The quasienergies of the dressed two-level system were probed by resonant absorption via a cavity, and the results are in agreement with a calculation based on the Floquet approach.

Autler-Townes effect in a superconducting three-level system.

When a three-level quantum system is irradiated by an intense coupling field resonant with one of the three possible transitions, the absorption peak of an additional probe field involving the remaining level is split. This process is known in quantum optics as the Autler-Townes effect. We observe these phenomena in a superconducting Josephson phase qubit, which can be considered an "artificial atom" with a multilevel quantum structure. The spectroscopy peaks can be explained reasonably well by a simple three-level Hamiltonian model. Simulation of a more complete model (including dissipation, higher levels, and cross coupling) provides excellent agreement with all of the experimental data.

Unconventional fractional quantum Hall states and Wigner crystallization in suspended Corbino graphene.

Competition between liquid and solid states in two-dimensional electron systems is an intriguing problem in condensed matter physics. We have investigated competing Wigner crystal and fractional quantum Hall (FQH) liquid phases in atomically thin suspended graphene devices in Corbino geometry. Low-temperature magnetoconductance and transconductance measurements along with IV characteristics all indicate strong charge density dependent modulation of electron transport. Our results show unconventional FQH phases which do not fit the standard Jain's series for conventional FQH states, instead they appear to originate from residual interactions of composite fermions in partially filled Landau levels. Also at very low charge density with filling factors [Formula: see text], electrons crystallize into an ordered Wigner solid which eventually transforms into an incompressible Hall liquid at filling factors around ν ≤ 1/7. Building on the unique Corbino sample structure, our experiments pave the way for enhanced understanding of the ordered phases of interacting electrons.

Gyrotropic Zener tunneling and nonlinear IV curves in the zero-energy Landau level of graphene in a strong magnetic field.

We have investigated tunneling current through a suspended graphene Corbino disk in high magnetic fields at the Dirac point, i.e. at filling factor ν = 0. At the onset of the dielectric breakdown the current through the disk grows exponentially before ohmic behaviour, but in a manner distinct from thermal activation. We find that Zener tunneling between Landau sublevels dominates, facilitated by tilting of the source-drain bias potential. According to our analytic modelling, the Zener tunneling is strongly affected by the gyrotropic force (Lorentz force) due to the high magnetic field.

Coherence and multimode correlations from vacuum fluctuations in a microwave superconducting cavity.

The existence of vacuum fluctuations is one of the most important predictions of modern quantum field theory. In the vacuum state, fluctuations occurring at different frequencies are uncorrelated. However, if a parameter in the Lagrangian of the field is modulated by an external pump, vacuum fluctuations stimulate spontaneous downconversion processes, creating squeezing between modes symmetric with respect to half of the frequency of the pump. Here we show that by double parametric pumping of a superconducting microwave cavity, it is possible to generate another type of correlation, namely coherence between photons in separate frequency modes. The coherence correlations are tunable by the phases of the pumps and are established by a quantum fluctuation that stimulates the simultaneous creation of two photon pairs. Our analysis indicates that the origin of this vacuum-induced coherence is the absence of which-way information in the frequency space.

Low-noise correlation measurements based on software-defined-radio receivers and cooled microwave amplifiers.

We present a microwave correlation measurement system based on two low-cost USB-connected software defined radio dongles modified to operate as coherent receivers by using a common local oscillator. Existing software is used to obtain I/Q samples from both dongles simultaneously at a software tunable frequency. To achieve low noise, we introduce an easy low-noise solution for cryogenic amplification at 600-900 MHz based on single discrete HEMT with 21 dB gain and 7 K noise temperature. In addition, we discuss the quantization effects in a digital correlation measurement and determination of optimal integration time by applying Allan deviation analysis.