Hidden force opposing ice compression

Coulomb repulsion between the unevenly-bound bonding and nonbonding electron pairs in the O:H-O hydrogen-bond is shown to originate the anomalies of ice under compression. Consistency between experimental observations, density functional theory and molecular dynamics calculations confirmed that the resultant force of the compression, the repulsion, and the recovery of electron-pair dislocations differentiates ice from other materials in response to pressure. The compression shortens and strengthens the longer-and-softer intermolecular O:H lone-pair virtual-bond; the repulsion pushes the bonding electron pair away from the H+/p and hence lengthens and weakens the intramolecular H-O real-bond. The virtual-bond compression and the real-bond elongation symmetrize the O:H-O as observed at ~60 GPa and result in the abnormally low compressibility of ice. The virtual-bond stretching phonons (< 400 cm-1) are thus stiffened and the real-bond stretching phonons (> 3000 cm-1) softened upon compression. The cohesive energy of the real-bond dominates and its loss lowers the critical temperature for the VIII-VII phase transition. The polarization of the lone electron pairs and the entrapment of the bonding electron pairs by compression expand the band gap consequently. Findings should form striking impact to understanding the physical anomalies of H2O.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1110.007

Photon-assisted electron transmission resonance through a quantum well with spin-orbit coupling

Using the effective-mass approximation and Floquet theory, we study the electron transmission over a quantum well in semiconductor heterostructures with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling and an applied oscillation field. It is demonstrated by the numerical evaluations that Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling eliminates the spin degeneracy and leads to the splitting of asymmetric Fano-type resonance peaks in the conductivity. In turn, the splitting of Fano-type resonance induces the spin- polarization-dependent electron-current. The location and line shape of Fano-type resonance can be controlled by adjusting the oscillation frequency and the amplitude of external field as well. These interesting features may be a very useful basis for devising tunable spin filters.Comment: 10pages,4figure

Switchable coupling between charge and flux qubits

We propose a hybrid quantum circuit with both charge and flux qubits connected to a large Josephson junction that gives rise to an effective inter-qubit coupling controlled by the external magnetic flux. This switchable inter-qubit coupling can be used to transfer back and forth an arbitrary superposition state between the charge qubit and the flux qubit working at the optimal point. The proposed hybrid circuit provides a promising quantum memory because the flux qubit at the optimal point can store the tranferred quantum state for a relatively long time.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Optical selection rules and phase-dependent adiabatic state control in a superconducting quantum circuit

We analyze the optical selection rules of the microwave-assisted transitions in a flux qubit superconducting quantum circuit (SQC). We show that the parities of the states relevant to the superconducting phase in the SQC are well-defined when the external magnetic flux $\Phi_{e}=\Phi_{0}/2$, then the selection rules are same as the ones for the electric-dipole transitions in usual atoms. When $\Phi_{e}\neq \Phi_{0}/2$, the symmetry of the potential of the artificial "atom'' is broken, a so-called $\Delta$-type "cyclic" three-level atom is formed, where one- and two-photon processes can coexist. We study how the population of these three states can be selectively transferred by adiabatically controlling the electromagnetic field pulses. Different from $\Lambda$-type atoms, the adiabatic population transfer in our three-level $\Delta$-atom can be controlled not only by the amplitudes but also by the phases of the pulses

Simultaneous cooling of an artificial atom and its neighboring quantum system

We propose an approach for cooling both an artificial atom (e.g., a flux qubit) and its neighboring quantum system, the latter modeled by either a quantum two-level system or a quantum resonator. The flux qubit is cooled by manipulating its states, following an inverse process of state population inversion, and then the qubit is switched on to resonantly interact with the neighboring quantum system. By repeating these steps, the two subsystems can be simultaneously cooled. Our results show that this cooling is robust and effective, irrespective of the chosen quantum systems connected to the qubit.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Producing cluster states in charge qubits and flux qubits

We propose a method to efficiently generate cluster states in charge qubits, both semiconducting and superconducting, as well as flux qubits. We show that highly-entangled cluster states can be realized by a `one-touch' entanglement operation by tuning gate bias voltages for charge qubits. We also investigate the robustness of these cluster states for non-uniform qubits, which are unavoidable in solid-state systems. We find that quantum computation based on cluster states is a promising approach for solid-state qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure