Quantum Matter 'On-a-Chip' II

量子物质“片上”II

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-06424
• 负责人: Gervais, Guillaume
• 金额: $ 5.1万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=588995
• 关键词: Quantum; Matter; Chip; II

The mid and long-term goal of our team at McGill is to elucidate new quantum phases of matter `on-a-chip' engineered in semiconductor electronic and fluidic structures. By 'quantum matter', I mean phases of matter whose behaviour is dictated by quantum rules rather than the more conventional newtonian physics that surrounds us. By `on-a-chip', I mean on a platform similar to the processors found in modern computers. Material-wise, we use extremely low-disorder GaAs/AlGaAs grown in the highest mobility (i.e. cleanest) Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) facility in the World (Princeton), as well as the cleanest material in Nature, 3He near absolute zero. Starting from raw semiconducting materials, we tailor-fabricate structures for electrons, or nanoholes for quantum fluids, using cutting-edge clean room fabrication processes evolved from the nanotech community. When the existing tools simply do not exist, we develop them and at times we file them for IP protection (patent) with McGill so as to promote the tech transfer. Below are the experiments we propose to pursue under the tenure of this grant: 1) Thermodynamic Signature of a Non-abelian Quantum Phase In elementary quantum physics textbooks, we learn that all (identical) quantum particles can be classified into two categories, according to their properties upon exchange. These two types of particles are fermions (such as electrons, protons, etc) and bosons (photons, 4He, etc). While correct in three dimensions, this need not to be true in two-dimensions where quantum statistics may exist that differ from the boson and fermion case. This project intends to demonstrate the existence of such non-abelian quantum phases by way of thermodynamic measurements 'on-a-chip'. 2) Coulomb drag and Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid in Quantum Wires In quantum physics, one-dimensional correlated states can be modeled via a theory with exact solutions known as the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid model. Despite its mathematical elegance, little is known experimentally regarding the behaviour of one-dimensional quantum systems. We have recently been able to fabricate quantum wires coupled in the vertical geometry by less than 15 nm, a World first. This projects thus intends to unravel the Luttinger physics that is predicted to occur in clean quantum wires by way of Coulomb drag measurements. 3) A Quantum Faucet: Quantized Mass Flow at the Nanoscale A clean quantum wire has its conductance quantuzed in units of 2e^/h, i.e. it depends only on the fundamental constants e and h. The question I am posing here is: could similar physics be observed in the mass flow of a real fluid system where the pressure gradient, the analogue to a voltage drop in a device, drives the flow (as in a faucet)? This project aims to experimentally demonstrate that at the nanoscale, for a quantum system, the conductance for the pipe should be quantized in unit of G_m=2m^2/h, the fundamental quantum of mass flow. 4) 'Sonic' Black Hole and the Unruh Effect Black holes are ubiquitous in the Universe, and despite their great interest, the celebrated 'black hole evaporation' predicted by Hawking in 1974 was never confirmed by observation. In 1981, Canadian physicist Unruh showed that the Euler equation describing the flow of an inviscid fluid supports a metric that has the same mathematical structure as the Schwarzschild metric for the black hole horizon. Using similar arguments used by Hawking, Unruh predicted 'Hawking radiation' of a sonic black hole for high-speed fluid flow. This project intends to study the 'conjectured' acoustic horizon predicted to occur in transsonic fluid flow, and explore experimentally the analogy between black hole physics and fluid dynamics.

我们在麦吉尔大学的团队的中长期目标是阐明半导体电子和流体结构中“芯片上”物质的新量子相。所谓“量子物质”，我指的是行为受量子规则支配的物质的各个阶段，而不是我们周围更传统的牛顿物理学。我所说的“片上”是指在一个类似于现代计算机处理器的平台上。材料方面，我们使用在世界上最高迁移率（即最干净）分子束外延（MBE）设施（普林斯顿大学）中生长的极低无序的GaAs/AlGaAs，以及自然界中最干净的材料，3He接近绝对零度。从原始半导体材料开始，我们使用从纳米技术界发展而来的尖端洁净室制造工艺，为电子或量子流体量身定制结构或纳米孔。当现有工具根本不存在时，我们会开发它们，有时我们会向麦吉尔申请知识产权保护（专利），以促进技术转让。以下是我们建议在这笔赠款的任期内进行的实验：