Heat Pulses in Electron Quantum Optics.

Electron quantum optics aims to realize ideas from the quantum theory of light with the role of photons being played by charge pulses in electronic conductors. Experimentally, the charge pulses are excited by time-dependent voltages; however, one could also generate heat pulses by heating and cooling an electrode. Here, we explore this intriguing idea by formulating a Floquet scattering theory of heat pulses in mesoscopic conductors.

Dynamic Cooper Pair Splitter.

Cooper pair splitters are promising candidates for generating spin-entangled electrons. However, the splitting of Cooper pairs is a random and noisy process, which hinders further synchronized operations on the entangled electrons. To circumvent this problem, we here propose and analyze a dynamic Cooper pair splitter that produces a noiseless and regular flow of spin-entangled electrons.

Real-time observation of Cooper pair splitting showing strong non-local correlations.

Controlled generation and detection of quantum entanglement between spatially separated particles constitute an essential prerequisite both for testing the foundations of quantum mechanics and for realizing future quantum technologies. Splitting of Cooper pairs from a superconductor provides entangled electrons at separate locations. However, experimentally accessing the individual split Cooper pairs constitutes a major unresolved issue as they mix together with electrons from competing processes.

Electron Waiting Times in a Strongly Interacting Quantum Dot: Interaction Effects and Higher-Order Tunneling Processes.

Distributions of electron waiting times have been measured in several recent experiments and have been shown to provide complementary information compared with what can be learned from the electric current fluctuations. Existing theories, however, are restricted to either weakly coupled nanostructures or phase-coherent transport in mesoscopic conductors. Here, we consider an interacting quantum dot and develop a real-time diagrammatic theory of waiting time distributions that can treat the interesting regime, in which both interaction effects and higher-order tunneling processes are important.