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Two‐particle interferometry in quantum Hall edge channels (Phys. Status Solidi B 3/2017)
Author(s) -
Marguerite A.,
Bocquillon E.,
Berroir J.M.,
Plaçais B.,
Cavanna A.,
Jin Y.,
Degiovanni P.,
Fève G.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201770215
Subject(s) - physics , electron , quantum entanglement , quantum , context (archaeology) , quantum mechanics , quantum hall effect , conductor , geometry , paleontology , mathematics , biology
The synchronized collision of two elementary electronic excitations in an electronic conductor constitutes the electronic analogue of the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect known from optics. Such an experiment can reveal the electrons' quantum nature by the measurement of the fluctuations of particle number at the outputs of an electron collider. Electrons in the same quantum state always exit in two different outputs as opposed to classical particles, which would be randomly partitioned towards any output. Experimental implementations of this two‐particle interferometry and their theoretical analysis are reviewed by Marguerite et al. (article no. 1600618 , see Back Cover) and by Glattli and Roulleau ( 1600650 ) in this special issue. In the image on the back cover, single electrons (blue) and holes (red) are emitted from two small quantum dots (bottom left and top right of the picture). Single particle wavepackets propagate along the edges of the two‐dimensional conductor and can be guided towards a tuneable electron partitioner (center of picture) – the “collider”. The quantitative analysis of this twoparticle interference effect proves to be a very rich and sensitive probe of electronic quantum states dynamically generated in a nanoscale conductor as for example reported by Moskalets and Haack ( 1600616 ) and by Roussel et al. ( 1600621 ). More specifically, it can be used to address single electron decoherence, electron fractionalization, and full quantum state tomography. In this special issue the electronic Hong–Ou–Mandel effect is also studied in the context of entanglement generation (Hofer et al., 1600582 ) and in more exotic systems such as topological insulator setups (Ferraro et al., 1600531 ).