Universal-conductance-fluctuation 1/f noise in a metal-insulator composite

Benchmarking Noise and Dephasing in Emerging Electrical Materials for Quantum Technologies

As quantum technologies develop, a specific class of electrically conducting materials is rapidly gaining interest because they not only form the core quantum-enabled elements in superconducting qubits, semiconductor nanostructures, or sensing devices, but also the peripheral circuitry. The phase coherence of the electronic wave function in these emerging materials will be crucial when incorporated in the quantum architecture. The loss of phase memory, or dephasing, occurs when a quantum system interacts with the fluctuations in the local electromagnetic environment, which manifests in "noise" in the electrical conductivity. Hence, characterizing these materials and devices therefrom, for quantum applications, requires evaluation of both dephasing and noise, although there are very few materials where these properties are investigated simultaneously. Here, the available data on magnetotransport and low-frequency fluctuations in electrical conductivity are reviewed to benchmark the dephasing and noise. The focus is on new materials that are of direct interest to quantum technologies. The physical processes causing dephasing and noise in these systems are elaborated, the impact of both intrinsic and extrinsic parameters from materials synthesis and devices realization are evaluated, and it is hoped that a clearer pathway to design and characterize both material and devices for quantum applications is thus provided.

Nonequilibrium fluctuations as a distinctive feature of weak localization

Two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, topological insulators, and two-dimensional electron gases, represent a technological playground to develop coherent electronics. In these systems, quantum interference effects, and in particular weak localization, are likely to occur. These coherence effects are usually characterized by well-defined features in dc electrical transport, such as a resistivity increase and negative magnetoresistance below a crossover temperature. Recently, it has been shown that in magnetic and superconducting compounds, undergoing a weak-localization transition, a specific low-frequency 1/f noise occurs. An interpretation in terms of nonequilibrium universal conductance fluctuations has been given. The universality of this unusual electric noise mechanism has been here verified by detailed voltage-spectral density investigations on ultrathin copper films. The reported experimental results validate the proposed theoretical framework, and also provide an alternative methodology to detect weak-localization effects by using electric noise spectroscopy.

Universal conductance fluctuations in three dimensional metallic single crystals of Si

In this paper we report the measurement of conductance fluctuations in 3D crystals of Si made metallic by heavy doping. ( L/L(straight phi) approximately 10(3), where L(straight phi) is the phase coherence length.) Temperature and magnetic field dependence of noise strongly indicate the universal conductance fluctuations as a predominant source of the observed magnitude of noise. Conductance fluctuations within a single phase coherent region of L(3)(straight phi) were found to be saturated at <(deltaG(straight phi))(2)> approximately (e(2)/h)(2). An accurate knowledge of the level of disorder enables us to calculate the change in conductance deltaG1 due to movement of a single scatterer as <(deltaG1)(2)> approximately (e(2)/h)(2), which is approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher than its theoretically expected value in 3D systems.