We use fast coherent reflectivity measurements, in a strongly coupled quantum dot micropillar device, to monitor in real time single-charge jumps at the microsecond time scale. Thanks to the strong enhancement of light-matter interaction inside the cavity, and to a close to shot-noise-limited detection setup, the measurement rate is 5 orders of magnitude faster than with previous optical experiments of direct single-charge sensing with quantum dots. The monitored transitions, identified at any given time with a less than 0.2% error probability, correspond to a carrier being captured and then released by a single material defect. This high-speed technique opens the way for the real-time monitoring of other rapid single quantum events, such as the quantum jumps of a single spin.

Here, we introduce the concept of magnetic localized surface plasmons (LSPs), magnetic dipole modes that are supported by cylindrical metal structures corrugated by very long, curved grooves. The resonance wavelength is dictated by the length of the grooves, allowing us to tune it to values much larger than the size of the particle. Moreover, magnetic LSPs also exist for extremely thin metal disks and, therefore, they could be used to devise metasurfaces with magnetic functionalities. Experimental evidence of the existence of these magnetic LSPs in the microwave regime is also presented, although the concept is very general and could be applied to terahertz or infrared frequencies.

The rapid worldwide spread of severe viral infections, often involving novel mutations of viruses, poses major challenges to our health-care systems. This means that tools that can efficiently and specifically diagnose viruses are much needed. To be relevant for broad applications in local health-care centers, such tools should be relatively cheap and easy to use. In this paper, we discuss the biophysical potential for the macroscopic detection of viruses based on the induction of a mechanical stress in a bundle of prestretched DNA molecules upon binding of viruses to the DNA. We show that the affinity of the DNA to the charged virus surface induces a local melting of the double helix into two single-stranded DNA. This process effects a mechanical stress along the DNA chains leading to an overall contraction of the DNA. Our results suggest that when such DNA bundles are incorporated in a supporting matrix such as a responsive hydrogel, the presence of viruses may indeed lead to a significant, macroscopic mechanical deformation of the matrix. We discuss the biophysical basis for this effect and characterize the physical properties of the associated DNA melting transition. In particular, we reveal several scaling relations between the relevant physical parameters of the system. We promote this DNA-based assay as a possible tool for efficient and specific virus screening.

Using ultrafast optical spectroscopy, we show that polaronic behavior associated with interfacial antiferromagnetic order is likely the origin of tunable magnetotransport upon switching the ferroelectric polarity in a ${\mathrm{La}}_{0.7}{\mathrm{Ca}}_{0.3}{\mathrm{MnO}}_3/{\mathrm{BiFeO}}_3$ (LCMO/BFO) heterostructure. This is revealed through the difference in dynamic spectral weight transfer between LCMO and LCMO/BFO at low temperatures, which indicates that transport in LCMO/BFO is polaronic in nature. This polaronic feature in LCMO/BFO decreases in relatively high magnetic fields due to the increased spin alignment, while no discernible change is found in the LCMO film at low temperatures. These results thus shed new light on the intrinsic mechanisms governing magnetoelectric coupling in this heterostructure, potentially offering a new route to enhancing multiferroic functionality.

Apart from applications in classical information-processing devices, the electrical control of atomic defects in solids at room temperature will have a tremendous impact on quantum devices that are based on such defects. In this study, we demonstrate the electrical manipulation of individual prominent representatives of such atomic solid-state defects, namely, the negative charge state of single nitrogen-vacancy defect centers (${\mathrm{NV}}^{-}$) in diamond. We experimentally demonstrate, deterministic, purely electrical charge-state initialization of individual NV centers. The NV centers are placed in the intrinsic region of a $p\text{−}i\text{−}n$ diode structure that facilitates the delivery of charge carriers to the defect for charge-state switching. The charge-state dynamics of a single NV center were investigated by time-resolved measurements and a nondestructive single-shot readout of the charge state. Fast charge-state switching rates (from negative to neutrally charged defects), which are greater than $0.72\pm 0.10\mu {\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, were realized. Furthermore, in no-operation mode, the realized charge states were stable for presumably much more than 0.45 s. We believe that the results obtained are useful not only for ultrafast electrical control of qubits, long ${\mathit{T}}_2$ quantum memory, and quantum sensors associated with single NV centers but also for classical memory devices based on single atomic storage bits working under ambient conditions.

We study a new class of unconventional critical phenomena that is characterized by singularities only in dynamical quantities and has no thermodynamic signatures. One example of such a transition is the recently proposed many-body localization-delocalization transition, in which transport coefficients vanish at a critical temperature with no singularities in thermodynamic observables. Describing this purely dynamical quantum criticality is technically challenging as understanding the finite-temperature dynamics necessarily requires averaging over a large number of matrix elements between many-body eigenstates. Here, we develop a real-space renormalization group method for excited states that allows us to overcome this challenge in a large class of models. We characterize a specific example: the 1 D disordered transverse-field Ising model with generic interactions. While thermodynamic phase transitions are generally forbidden in this model, using the real-space renormalization group method for excited states we find a finite-temperature dynamical transition between two localized phases. The transition is characterized by nonanalyticities in the low-frequency heat conductivity and in the long-time (dynamic) spin correlation function. The latter is a consequence of an up-down spin symmetry that results in the appearance of an Edwards-Anderson-like order parameter in one of the localized phases.

We use femtosecond optical spectroscopy to systematically measure the primary energy relaxation rate ${\Gamma }_1$ of photoexcited carriers in cuprate and pnictide superconductors. We find that ${\Gamma }_1$ increases monotonically with increased negative strain in the crystallographic $a$ axis. Generally, the Bardeen-Shockley deformation potential theorem and, specifically, pressure-induced Raman shifts reported in the literature suggest that increased negative strain enhances electron-phonon coupling, which implies that the observed direct correspondence between $a$ and ${\Gamma }_1$ is consistent with the canonical assignment of ${\Gamma }_1$ to the electron-phonon interaction. The well-known nonmonotonic dependence of the superconducting critical temperature $T_c$ on the $a$-axis strain is also reflected in a systematic dependence $T_c$ on ${\Gamma }_1$, with a distinct maximum at intermediate values ($\sim 16{\mathrm{ps}}^{-1}$ at room temperature). The empirical nonmonotonic systematic variation of $T_c$ with the strength of the electron-phonon interaction provides us with unique insight into the role of electron-phonon interaction in relation to the mechanism of high-$T_c$ superconductivity as a crossover phenomenon.

This paper reports on the hyperfine-structure and radioactive-decay studies of the neutron-deficient francium isotopes ${}^{202–206}\mathrm{Fr}$ performed with the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at the ISOLDE facility, CERN. The high resolution innate to collinear laser spectroscopy is combined with the high efficiency of ion detection to provide a highly sensitive technique to probe the hyperfine structure of exotic isotopes. The technique of decay-assisted laser spectroscopy is presented, whereby the isomeric ion beam is deflected to a decay-spectroscopy station for alpha-decay tagging of the hyperfine components. Here, we present the first hyperfine-structure measurements of the neutron-deficient francium isotopes ${}^{202–206}\mathrm{Fr}$, in addition to the identification of the low-lying states of ${}^{202,204}\mathrm{Fr}$ performed at the CRIS experiment.

The discovery of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) recurrence phenomenon in the 1950 s was a major step in science that later led to the discovery of solitons in nonlinear physics. More recently, it was shown that optical fibers can serve as a medium for observing the FPU phenomenon. In the present work, we have found experimentally and numerically that in the low-dispersion region of an optical fiber, the recurrence is strongly influenced by the third-order-dispersion (TOD) term. Namely, the presence of TOD leads to several disappearances and recoveries of the FPU recurrence when the central frequency of the pump wave is varied. The effect is highly nontrivial and can be explained in terms of reversible and irreversible losses caused by Cherenkov radiations interacting with a multiplicity of modes sharing the optical energy in the process of its partition.

How neurons process their inputs crucially determines the dynamics of biological and artificial neural networks. In such neural and neural-like systems, synaptic input is typically considered to be merely transmitted linearly or sublinearly by the dendritic compartments. Yet, single-neuron experiments report pronounced supralinear dendritic summation of sufficiently synchronous and spatially close-by inputs. Here, we provide a statistical physics approach to study the impact of such nonadditive dendritic processing on single-neuron responses and the performance of associative-memory tasks in artificial neural networks. First, we compute the effect of random input to a neuron incorporating nonlinear dendrites. This approach is independent of the details of the neuronal dynamics. Second, we use those results to study the impact of dendritic nonlinearities on the network dynamics in a paradigmatic model for associative memory, both numerically and analytically. We find that dendritic nonlinearities maintain network convergence and increase the robustness of memory performance against noise. Interestingly, an intermediate number of dendritic branches is optimal for memory functionality.

The possibility of quantum computation using non-Abelian anyons has been considered for over a decade. However, the question of how to obtain and process information about what errors have occurred in order to negate their effects has not yet been considered. This is in stark contrast with quantum computation proposals for Abelian anyons, for which decoding algorithms have been tailor-made for many topological error-correcting codes and error models. Here, we address this issue by considering the properties of non-Abelian error correction, in general. We also choose a specific anyon model and error model to probe the problem in more detail. The anyon model is the charge submodel of $D(S_3)$. This shares many properties with important models such as the Fibonacci anyons, making our method more generally applicable. The error model is a straightforward generalization of those used in the case of Abelian anyons for initial benchmarking of error correction methods. It is found that error correction is possible under a threshold value of 7% for the total probability of an error on each physical spin. This is remarkably comparable with the thresholds for Abelian models.

Disordered packings of soft grains are fragile mechanical systems that lose rigidity upon lowering the external pressure toward zero. At zero pressure, we find that any infinitesimal strain impulse propagates initially as a nonlinear solitary wave progressively attenuated by disorder. We demonstrate that the particle fluctuations generated by the solitary-wave decay can be viewed as a granular analogue of temperature. Their presence is manifested by two emergent macroscopic properties absent in the unperturbed granular packing: a finite pressure that scales with the injected energy (akin to a granular temperature) and an anomalous viscosity that arises even when the microscopic mechanisms of energy dissipation are negligible. Consistent with the interpretation of this state as a fluidlike thermalized state, the shear modulus remains zero. Further, we follow in detail the attenuation of the initial solitary wave, identifying two distinct regimes—an initial exponential decay, followed by a longer power-law decay—and suggest simple models to explain these two regimes.

We describe how randomized benchmarking can be used to reconstruct the unital part of any trace-preserving quantum map, which in turn is sufficient for the full characterization of any unitary evolution or, more generally, any unital trace-preserving evolution. This approach inherits randomized benchmarking’s robustness to preparation, measurement, and gate imperfections, thereby avoiding systematic errors caused by these imperfections. We also extend these techniques to efficiently estimate the average fidelity of a quantum map to unitary maps outside of the Clifford group. The unitaries we consider correspond to large circuits commonly used as building blocks to achieve scalable, universal, and fault-tolerant quantum computation. Hence, we can efficiently verify all such subcomponents of a circuit-based universal quantum computer. In addition, we rigorously bound the time and sampling complexities of randomized benchmarking procedures, proving that the required nonlinear estimation problem can be solved efficiently.

We use frequency-entangled photons, generated via spontaneous parametric down conversion, to measure the broadband spectral response of an array of gold nanoparticles exhibiting Fano-type plasmon resonance. Refractive-index sensing of a liquid is performed by measuring the shift of the array resonance. This method is robust in excessively noisy conditions compared with conventional broadband transmission spectroscopy. Detection of a refractive-index change is demonstrated with a noise level 70 times higher than the signal, which is shown to be inaccessible with the conventional transmission spectroscopy. Use of low-photon fluxes makes this method suitable for measurements of photosensitive biosamples and chemical substances.

Resonant behavior involving spin-orbit entangled states occurs for spin transport along a narrow channel defined in a two-dimensional electron gas, including an apparent rapid relaxation of the spin polarization for special values of the channel width and applied magnetic field (so-called ballistic spin resonance). A fully quantum-mechanical theory for transport using multiple subbands of the one-dimensional system provides the dependence of the spin density on the applied magnetic field and channel width and position along the channel. We show how the spatially nonoscillating part of the spin density vanishes when the Zeeman energy matches the subband energy splittings. The resonance phenomenon persists in the presence of disorder.

Discovering and characterizing the large-scale topological features in empirical networks are crucial steps in understanding how complex systems function. However, most existing methods used to obtain the modular structure of networks suffer from serious problems, such as being oblivious to the statistical evidence supporting the discovered patterns, which results in the inability to separate actual structure from noise. In addition to this, one also observes a resolution limit on the size of communities, where smaller but well-defined clusters are not detectable when the network becomes large. This phenomenon occurs for the very popular approach of modularity optimization, which lacks built-in statistical validation, but also for more principled methods based on statistical inference and model selection, which do incorporate statistical validation in a formally correct way. Here, we construct a nested generative model that, through a complete description of the entire network hierarchy at multiple scales, is capable of avoiding this limitation and enables the detection of modular structure at levels far beyond those possible with current approaches. Even with this increased resolution, the method is based on the principle of parsimony, and is capable of separating signal from noise, and thus will not lead to the identification of spurious modules even on sparse networks. Furthermore, it fully generalizes other approaches in that it is not restricted to purely assortative mixing patterns, directed or undirected graphs, and ad hoc hierarchical structures such as binary trees. Despite its general character, the approach is tractable and can be combined with advanced techniques of community detection to yield an efficient algorithm that scales well for very large networks.

Topological insulators are characterized by Dirac-cone surface states with electron spins locked perpendicular to their linear momenta. Recent theoretical and experimental work implied that this specific spin texture should enable control of photoelectron spins by circularly polarized light. However, these reports questioned the so far accepted interpretation of spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. We solve this puzzle and show that vacuum ultraviolet photons (50–70 eV) with linear or circular polarization indeed probe the initial-state spin texture of ${\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Se}}_3$ while circularly polarized 6-eV low-energy photons flip the electron spins out of plane and reverse their spin polarization, with its sign determined by the light helicity. Our photoemission calculations, taking into account the interplay between the varying probing depth, dipole-selection rules, and spin-dependent scattering effects involving initial and final states, explain these findings and reveal proper conditions for light-induced spin manipulation. Our results pave the way for future applications of topological insulators in optospintronic devices.

We show that the self-assembly of a diverse collection of building blocks can be understood within a common physical framework. These building blocks, which form periodic honeycomb networks and nonperiodic variants thereof, range in size from atoms to micron-scale polymers and interact through mechanisms as different as hydrogen bonds and covalent forces. A combination of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics shows that one can capture the physics that governs the assembly of these networks by resolving only the geometry and strength of building-block interactions. The resulting framework reproduces a broad range of phenomena seen experimentally, including periodic and nonperiodic networks in thermal equilibrium, and nonperiodic supercooled and glassy networks away from equilibrium. Our results show how simple “design criteria” control the assembly of a wide variety of networks and suggest that kinetic trapping can be a useful way of making functional assemblies.

The electron transport properties of atomically thin semiconductors such as ${\mathrm{MoS}}_2$ have attracted significant recent scrutiny and controversy. In this work, the scattering mechanisms responsible for limiting the mobility of single-layer semiconductors are evaluated. The roles of individual scattering rates are tracked as the two-dimensional electron gas density is varied over orders of magnitude at various temperatures. From a comparative study of the individual scattering mechanisms, we conclude that all current reported values of mobilities in atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductors are limited by ionized impurity scattering. When the charged impurity densities are reduced, remote optical phonon scattering will determine the ceiling of the highest mobilities attainable in these ultrathin materials at room temperature. The intrinsic mobilities will be accessible only in clean suspended layers, as is also the case for graphene. Based on the study, we identify the best choices for surrounding dielectrics that will help attain the highest mobilities.

In this work, we treat the Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations as the basis for a consistent framework of the electrokinetic effects. The static limit of the PNP equations is shown to be the charge-conserving Poisson-Boltzmann (CCPB) equation, with guaranteed charge neutrality within the computational domain. We propose a surface potential trap model that attributes an energy cost to the interfacial charge dissociation. In conjunction with the CCPB, the surface potential trap can cause a surface-specific adsorbed charge layer $\sigma$. By defining a chemical potential $\mu$ that arises from the charge neutrality constraint, a reformulated CCPB can be reduced to the form of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation, whose prediction of the Debye screening layer profile is in excellent agreement with that of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation when the channel width is much larger than the Debye length. However, important differences emerge when the channel width is small, so the Debye screening layers from the opposite sides of the channel overlap with each other. In particular, the theory automatically yields a variation of $\sigma$ that is generally known as the “charge regulation” behavior, attendant with predictions of force variation as a function of nanoscale separation between two charged surfaces that are in good agreement with the experiments, with no adjustable or additional parameters. We give a generalized definition of the $\zeta$ potential that reflects the strength of the electrokinetic effect; its variations with the concentration of surface-specific and surface-nonspecific salt ions are shown to be in good agreement with the experiments. To delineate the behavior of the electro-osmotic (EO) effect, the coupled PNP and Navier-Stokes equations are solved numerically under an applied electric field tangential to the fluid-solid interface. The EO effect is shown to exhibit an intrinsic time dependence that is noninertial in its origin. Under a step-function applied electric field, a pulse of fluid flow is followed by relaxation to a new ion distribution, owing to the diffusive counter current. We have numerically evaluated the Onsager coefficients associated with the EO effect, $L_{\text{21}}$, and its reverse streaming potential effect, $L_{12}$, and show that $L_{\text{12}}=L_{\text{21}}$ in accordance with the Onsager relation. We conclude by noting some of the challenges ahead.