Time-Reversal Symmetry and Universal Conductance Fluctuations in a Driven Two-Level System

Abstract

In the presence of time-reversal symmetry, quantum interference gives strong corrections to the electric conductivity of disordered systems. The self-interference of an electron wavefunction traveling time-reversed paths leads to effects such as weak localization and universal conductance fluctuations. Here, we investigate the effects of broken time-reversal symmetry in a driven artificial two-level system. Using a superconducting flux qubit, we implement scattering events as multiple Landau-Zener transitions by driving the qubit periodically back and forth through an avoided crossing. Interference between different qubit trajectories give rise to a speckle pattern in the qubit transition rate, similar to the interference patterns created when coherent light is scattered off a disordered potential. Since the scattering events are imposed by the driving protocol, we can control the time-reversal symmetry of the system by making the drive waveform symmetric or asymmetric in time. We find that the fluctuations of the transition rate exhibit a sharp peak when the drive is time-symmetric, similar to universal conductance fluctuations in electronic transport through mesoscopic systems.

References in corpus (3)

• Strong suppression of weak (anti)localization in graphene
• Microwave-Induced Cooling of a Superconducting Qubit
• Coherent Quasiclassical Dynamics of a Persistent Current Qubit

Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Quantum systems under frequency modulation
• Stückelberg interference in a superconducting qubit under periodic latching modulation
• Demonstration of Geometric Landau-Zener Interferometry in a Superconducting Qubit
• Minimal models for nonreciprocal amplification using biharmonic drives
• Simulating weak localization using superconducting quantum circuits
• Multistability and Self-Organization in Disordered SQUID Metamaterials
• Landau-Zener interference at bichromatic driving
• Decoherence of a Driven Qubit
• Amplitude and phase effects in Josephson qubits driven by a biharmonic electromagnetic field
• Dynamic transition in Landau-Zener-Stückelberg interferometry of dissipative systems: the case of the flux qubit
• A double-slit proposal for quantum annealing
• Quantum emulation of coherent backscattering in a system of superconducting qubits
• Mechanism of Universal Conductance Fluctuations
• Mesoscopic fluctuations in biharmonically driven flux qubits
• Observation of adiabatic and non-adiabatic behavior for CPMG sequence in time-dependent magnetic fields
• Nonadiabatic transition at a band-touching point
• Spectral analysis of universal conductance fluctuations