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Detection of geometric phases in superconducting nanocircuits

Nature volume 407, pages 355–358 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

When a quantum-mechanical system undergoes an adiabatic cyclic evolution, it acquires a geometrical phase factor1 in addition to the dynamical one; this effect has been demonstrated in a variety of microscopic systems2. Advances in nanotechnology should enable the laws of quantum dynamics to be tested at the macroscopic level3, by providing controllable artificial two-level systems (for example, in quantum dots4 and superconducting devices5,6). Here we propose an experimental method to detect geometric phases in a superconducting device. The setup is a Josephson junction nanocircuit consisting of a superconducting electron box. We discuss how interferometry based on geometrical phases may be realized, and show how the effect may be applied to the design of gates for quantum computation.

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Figure 1: Schematic design of the system and the gates.
Figure 2: Geometric phase produced by the adiabatic manipulations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D.V. Averin, A. Ekert, G. Giaquinta, J. Jones, B. Pannetier and E. Paladino for helpful discussions. G.F. acknowledges kind hospitality at LEPES-CNRS (Grenoble). Part of the work of R.F. was done at ISI-Torino. This work was supported by the European Community (TMR, IST-SQUIBIT, IST-EQUIP), by INFM-PRA-SSQI and by ELSAG S.p.A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Metodologie Fisiche e Chimiche (DMFCI), Università di Catania, viale A. Doria 6, Catania, I-95125, Italy

    Giuseppe Falci, Rosario Fazio & Jens Siewert

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche ed Astronomiche (DSFA), Università di Palermo, via Archirafi 36, Palermo, I-90123, Italy

    G. Massimo Palma

  3. Centre for Quantum Computation, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

    Vlatko Vedral

  4. Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM), Unità di Catania e Palermo, Italy

    Giuseppe Falci, Rosario Fazio, G. Massimo Palma & Jens Siewert

Authors
  1. Giuseppe Falci
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  2. Rosario Fazio
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  3. G. Massimo Palma
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  5. Vlatko Vedral
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Falci.

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Falci, G., Fazio, R., Palma, G. et al. Detection of geometric phases in superconducting nanocircuits. Nature 407, 355–358 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35030052

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