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Kim Y-S, Lee J-C, Kwon O, Kim Y-H. Protecting entanglement from decoherence using weak measurement and quantum measurement reversal. Nat Phys. 2012;8(2):117–20.
Abstract: Decoherence, often caused by unavoidable coupling with the environment, leads to degradation of quantum coherence. For a multipartite quantum system, decoherence leads to degradation of entanglement and, in certain cases, entanglement sudden death. Tackling decoherence, thus, is a critical issue faced in quantum information, as entanglement is a vital resource for many quantum information applications including quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and quantum metrology. Here, we propose and demonstrate a scheme to protect entanglement from decoherence. Our entanglement protection scheme makes use of the quantum measurement itself for actively battling against decoherence and it can effectively circumvent even entanglement sudden death.
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Larrey V, Villegier J-C, Salez M, Miletto-Granozio F, Karpov A. Processing and characterization of high Jc NbN superconducting tunnel junctions for THz analog circuits and RSFQ. IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.. 1999;9(2):3216–9.
Abstract: A generic NbN Superconducting Tunnel Junctions (STJ) technology has been developed using conventional substrates (Si and SOI-SIMOX) for making THz spectrometers including SIS receivers and RSFQ logic gates. NbN/MgO/NbN junctions with area of 1 /spl mu/m/sup 2/, Jc of 10 kA/cm/sup 2/ and low sub-gap leakage current (Vm>25 mV) are currently obtained from room temperature sputtered multilayers followed by a post-annealing at 250/spl deg/C. Using a thin MgO buffer layer deposited underneath the NbN electrodes, ensures lower NbN surface resistance values (Rs=7 /spl mu//spl Omega/) at 10 GHz and 4 K. Epitaxial NbN [100] films on MgO [100] with high gap frequency (1.4 THz) have also been achieved under the same deposition conditions at room temperature. The NbN SIS has shown good I-V photon induced steps when LO pumped at 300 GHz. We have developed an 8 levels Al/NbN multilayer process for making 1.5 THz SIS mixers (including Al antennas) on Si membranes patterned in SOI-SIMOX. Using the planarization techniques developed at the Si-MOS CEA-LETI Facility, we have also demonstrated on the possibility of extending our NbN technology to high level RSFQ circuit integration with 0.5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ junction area, made on large area substrates (up to 8 inches).
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Ryabchun S, Tong C-YE, Blundell R, Kimberk R, Gol'tsman G. Study of the effect of microwave radiation on the operation of HEB mixers in the terahertz frequency range. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2007;17(2):391–4.
Abstract: We have investigated the effect of injecting microwave radiation, with a frequency much lower than that corresponding to the energy gap of the superconductor, on the performance of the hot-electron bolometer mixer incorporated into a THz heterodyne receiver. More specifically, we show that exposing the mixer to microwave radiation does not cause a significant rise of the receiver noise temperature and fall of the mixer conversion gain so long as the microwave power is a small fraction of local oscillator power. The injection of a small, but controlled amount of microwave power therefore enables active compensation of local oscillator power and coupling fluctuations which can significantly degrade the gain stability of hot electron bolometer mixer receivers.
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Loudkov D, Tong C-YE, Blundell R, Kaurova N, Grishina E, Voronov B, et al. An investigation of the performance of the superconducting HEB mixer as a function of its RF embedding impedance. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2005;15(2):472–5.
Abstract: We have conducted an investigation of the optimal embedding impedance for a waveguide superconducting hot-electron bolometric (HEB) mixer. Three mixer chip designs for 800 GHz, offering nominal embedding resistances of 70 /spl Omega/, 35 /spl Omega/, and 15 /spl Omega/, have been developed. We used both High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) software and scale model impedance measurements in the design process. We subsequently fabricated HEB mixers to these designs using 3-4 nm thick NbN thin film. Receiver noise temperature measurements and Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) scans were performed to determine the optimal combination of embedding impedance and normal-state resistance for a 50 Ohm IF load impedance. A receiver noise temperature of 440 K was measured at a local oscillator frequency 850 GHz for a mixer with normal state resistance of 62 /spl Omega/ incorporated into a circuit offering a nominal embedding impedance of 70 /spl Omega/. We conclude from our data that, for low noise operation, the normal state resistance of the HEB mixer element should be close to the embedding impedance of the mixer mount.
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Yagoubov P, Kroug M, Merkel H, Kollberg E, Schubert J, Hubers H-W, et al. Heterodyne measurements of a NbN superconducting hot electron mixer at terahertz frequencies. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 1999;9(2):3757–60.
Abstract: The performance of a NbN based phonon-cooled Hot Electron Bolometric (HEB) quasioptical mixer is investigated in the 0.65-3.12 THz frequency range. The device is made from a 3 nm thick NbN film on high resistivity Si and integrated with a planar spiral antenna on the same substrate. The in-plane dimensions of the bolometer strip are 0.2/spl times/2 /spl mu/m. The best results of the DSB noise temperature at 1.5 GHz IF frequency obtained with one device are: 1300 K at 650 GHz, 4700 K at 2.5 THz and 10000 K at 3.12 THz. The measurements were performed at 4.5 K ambient temperature. The amount of local oscillator (LO) power absorbed in the bolometer is about 100 nW. The mixer is linear to within 1 dB compression up to the signal level 10 dB below that of the LO. The intrinsic single sideband conversion gain measured at 650 GHz is -9 dB, the total conversion gain is -14 dB.
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Lee J-H, Kim D-W, Wu Y-H, Yu C-J, Lee S-D, Wu S-T. High-speed infrared phase modulators using short helical pitch ferroelectric liquid crystals. Opt Express. 2005;13(20):7732.
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Huang KCY, Jun YC, Seo M-K, Brongersma ML. Power flow from a dipole emitter near an optical antenna. Opt Express. 2011;19(20):19084–92.
Abstract: Current methods to calculate the emission enhancement of a quantum emitter coupled to an optical antenna of arbitrary geometry rely on analyzing the total Poynting vector power flow out of the emitter or the dyadic Green functions from full-field numerical simulations. Unfortunately, these methods do not provide information regarding the nature of the dominant energy decay pathways. We present a new approach that allows for a rigorous separation, quantification, and visualization of the emitter output power flow captured by an antenna and the subsequent reradiation power flow to the far field. Such analysis reveals unprecedented details of the emitter/antenna coupling mechanisms and thus opens up new design strategies for strongly interacting emitter/antenna systems used in sensing, active plasmonics and metamaterials, and quantum optics.
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Semenov A, Engel A, Il'in K, Gol'tsman G, Siegel M, Hübers H-W. Ultimate performance of a superconducting quantum detector. Eur Phys J Appl Phys. 2003;21(3):171–8.
Abstract: We analyze the ultimate performance of a superconducting quantum detector in order to meet requirements for applications in near-infrared astronomy and X-ray spectroscopy. The detector exploits a combined detection mechanism, in which avalanche quasiparticle multiplication and the supercurrent jointly produce a voltage response to a single absorbed photon via successive formation of a photon-induced and a current-induced normal hotspot in a narrow superconducting strip. The response time of the detector should increase with the photon energy providing energy resolution. Depending on the superconducting material and operation conditions, the cut-off wavelength for the single-photon detection regime varies from infrared waves to visible light. We simulated the performance of the background-limited infrared direct detector and X-ray photon counter utilizing the above mechanism. Low dark count rate and intrinsic low-frequency cut-off allow for realizing a background limited noise equivalent power of 10−20 W Hz−1/2 for a far-infrared direct detector exposed to 4-K background radiation. At low temperatures, the intrinsic response time of the counter is rather determined by diffusion of nonequilibrium electrons than by the rate of energy transfer to phonons. Therefore, thermal fluctuations do not hamper energy resolution of the X-ray photon counter that should be better than 10−3 for 6-keV photons. Comparison of new data obtained with a Nb based detector and previously reported results on NbN quantum detectors support our estimates of ultimate detector performance.
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Ryabchun S, Tong C-YE, Paine S, Lobanov Y, Blundell R, Goltsman G. Temperature resolution of an HEB receiver at 810 GHz. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2009;19(3):293–6.
Abstract: We present the results of direct measurements of the temperature resolution of an HEB receiver operating at 810 GHz, in both continuum and spectroscopic modes. In the continuum mode, the input of the receiver was switched between black bodies with different physical temperatures. With a system noise temperature of around 1100 K, the receiver was able to resolve loads which differed in temperature by about 1 K over an integration time of 5 seconds. This resolution is significantly worse than the value of 0.07 K given by the radiometer equation. In the spectroscopic mode, a gas cell filled with carbonyl sulphide (OCS) gas was used and the emission line at 813.3537060 GHz was measured using the receiver in conjunction with a digital spectrometer. From the observed spectra, we determined that the measurement uncertainty of the equivalent emission temperature was 2.8 K for an integration time of 0.25 seconds and a spectral resolution of 12 MHz, compared to a 1.4 K temperature resolution given by the radiometer equation. This relative improvement is due to the fact that at short integration times the contribution from 1/f noise and drift are less dominant. In both modes, the temperature resolution was improved by about 40% with the use of a feedback loop which adjusted the level of an injected microwave radiation to maintain a constant operating current of the HEB mixer. This stabilization scheme has proved to be very effective to keep the temperature resolution of the HEB receiver to close to the theoretical value given by the radiometer equation.
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Lobanov YV, Tong C-YE, Hedden AS, Blundell R, Voronov BM, Gol'tsman GN. Direct measurement of the gain and noise bandwidths of HEB mixers. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2011;21(3):645–8.
Abstract: The intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of a hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer is an important parameter of the mixer, in that it helps to determine its suitability for a given application. With the availability of wideband low noise amplifiers, it is simple to measure the performance of an HEB mixer over a wide range of IF at a fixed LO frequency using the standard Y-factor method. This in-situ method allows us to measure both the gain and noise bandwidths simultaneously. We have also measured mixer output impedance with a vector network analyser. Intrinsic time constant has been extracted from the impedance data and compared to the mixer's bandwidths determined from receiver Y-factor measurement.
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