Generation of a single-cycle acoustic pulse: a scalable solution for transport in single-electron circuits

Abstract

The synthesis of single-cycle, compressed optical and microwave pulses sparked novel areas of fundamental research. In the field of acoustics, however, such a generation has not been introduced yet. For numerous applications, the large spatial extent of surface acoustic waves (SAW) causes unwanted perturbations and limits the accuracy of physical manipulations. Particularly, this restriction applies to SAW-driven quantum experiments with single flying electrons, where extra modulation renders the exact position of the transported electron ambiguous and leads to undesired spin mixing. Here, we address this challenge by demonstrating single-shot chirp synthesis of a strongly compressed acoustic pulse. Employing this solitary SAW pulse to transport a single electron between distant quantum dots with an efficiency exceeding 99%, we show that chirp synthesis is competitive with regular transduction approaches. Performing a time-resolved investigation of the SAW-driven sending process, we outline the potential of the chirped SAW pulse to synchronize single-electron transport from many quantum-dot sources. By superimposing multiple pulses, we further point out the capability of chirp synthesis to generate arbitrary acoustic waveforms tailorable to a variety of (opto)nanomechanical applications. Our results shift the paradigm of compressed pulses to the field of acoustic phonons and pave the way for a SAW-driven platform of single-electron transport that is precise, synchronized, and scalable.

To be published in Physical Review X

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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Electron qubits surfing on acoustic waves: review of recent progress
• Quantum transport phenomena induced by time-dependent fields
• Observation of Shapiro Steps in the Charge Density Wave State Induced by Strain on a Piezoelectric Substrate
• On-Demand Single-Electron Source via Single-Cycle Acoustic Pulses
• Periodic source of energy-entangled electrons in helical states coupled to a BCS superconductor
• Generation of a single-cycle surface acoustic wave pulse on LiNbO${}_3$ for application to thin film materials
• Decoherence and fidelity enhancement during shuttling of entangled spin qubits
• Suppression of Electromagnetic Crosstalk by Differential Excitation for SAW Generation