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Partitioning of on-demand electron pairs

Nature Nanotechnology volume 10, pages 46–49 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The on-demand generation and separation of entangled photon pairs are key components of quantum information processing in quantum optics1,2,3. In an electronic analogue, the decomposition of electron pairs represents an essential building block for using the quantum state of ballistic electrons in electron quantum optics4,5,6,7. The scattering of electrons has been used to probe the particle statistics of stochastic sources in Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiments8,9 and the recent advent of on-demand sources further offers the possibility to achieve indistinguishability between multiple sources in Hong–Ou–Mandel experiments10,11,12,13,14,15. Cooper pairs impinging stochastically at a mesoscopic beamsplitter have been successfully partitioned, as verified by measuring the coincidence of arrival16,17,18,19,20,21. Here, we demonstrate the splitting of electron pairs generated on demand. Coincidence correlation measurements allow the reconstruction of the full counting statistics, revealing regimes of statistically independent, distinguishable or correlated partitioning, and have been envisioned as a source of information on the quantum state of the electron pair22,23,24,25,26. The high pair-splitting fidelity opens a path to future on-demand generation of spin-entangled electron pairs from a suitably prepared two-electron quantum-dot ground state.

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Figure 1: Measurement set-up.
Figure 2: Partitioning noise of an on-demand electron source.
Figure 3: Partitioning of on-demand electron pairs.
Figure 4: Regimes of binomial distribution.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank H. Marx, Th. Weimann and P. Mirovsky for the fabrication of the wafer material and the device. The authors (except V.K.) acknowledge financial support by the German Research Foundation, the Niedersachsen Institutes of Technology and (except T.M., R.J.H., and V.K.) the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) within the Joint Research Project ‘Quantum Ampere’ (JRP SIB07). The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union. V.K. has been supported by the Latvian Science Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Festkörperphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, 30167, Germany

    Niels Ubbelohde, Timo Wagner & Rolf J. Haug

  2. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig, 38116, Germany

    Frank Hohls, Lukas Fricke, Bernd Kästner, Klaus Pierz & Hans W. Schumacher

  3. Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, University of Latvia, Riga, LV-1002, Latvia

    Vyacheslavs Kashcheyevs

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  1. Niels Ubbelohde
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Contributions

All authors conceived the research. N.U., T.W. and L.F. carried out the experiments. N.U., F.H. and V.K. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. V.K. developed the modelling theory and wrote Supplementary Sections A and B. K.P. provided the heterostructure. F.H., H.W.S. and R.J.H. supervised the research. All authors discussed the results and contributed to editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Niels Ubbelohde.

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Ubbelohde, N., Hohls, F., Kashcheyevs, V. et al. Partitioning of on-demand electron pairs. Nature Nanotech 10, 46–49 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.275

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