This thesis studies quantum coherence in macroscopic and mesoscopic dissipative electrical circuits, including LC circuits, microwave resonators, and Josephson junctions. For the LC resonator and the terminated transmission line microwave resonator, second quantization is carried out for the lossless system and dissipation in modeled as the coupling to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Stationary states of the linear and nonlinear resonator circuits as well as the associated energy levels are found, and the time evolution of uncertainty relations for the observables such as flux, charge, current, and voltage are obtained. Coherent states of both the lossless and weakly dissipative circuits are studied within a quantum optical approach based on a Fokker-Plank equation for the P-representation of the density matrix which has been utilized to obtain time-variations of the averages and uncertainties of circuit observables. Macroscopic quantum tunneling is addressed for a driven dissipative Josephson resonator from its metastable current state to the continuum of stable voltage states. The Caldeira-Leggett method and the instanton path integral technique have been used to find the tunneling rate of a driven Josephson junction from a zero-voltage state to the continuum of the voltage states in the presence of dissipation. Upper and lower bounds are obtained for the tunneling rate at the intermediate loss and approximate closed form expressions are derived for the overdamped and underdamped limits.

This thesis studies quantum coherence in macroscopic and mesoscopic dissipative electrical circuits, including LC circuits, microwave resonators, and Josephson junctions. For the LC resonator and the terminated transmission line microwave resonator, second quantization is carried out for the lossless system and dissipation in modeled as the coupling to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Stationary states of the linear and nonlinear resonator circuits as well as the associated energy levels are found, and the time evolution of uncertainty relations for the observables such as flux, charge, current, and voltage are obtained. Coherent states of both the lossless and weakly dissipative circuits are studied within a quantum optical approach based on a Fokker-Plank equation for the P-representation of the density matrix which has been utilized to obtain time-variations of the averages and uncertainties of circuit observables. Macroscopic quantum tunneling is addressed for a driven dissipative Josephson resonator from its metastable current state to the continuum of stable voltage states. The Caldeira-Leggett method and the instanton path integral technique have been used to find the tunneling rate of a driven Josephson junction from a zero-voltage state to the continuum of the voltage states in the presence of dissipation. Upper and lower bounds are obtained for the tunneling rate at the intermediate loss and approximate closed form expressions are derived for the overdamped and underdamped limits.

Orientador: Amir Ordacgi Caldeira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T02:34:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Brito_FredericoBorgesde_D.pdf: 5789237 bytes, checksum: 6648aaced89bad6ff2fc57794c0ae747 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Esta tese teve como objetivo estudar processos de perda de coerência quântica, chamados de descoerência, em sistemas de matéria condensada eleitos pela literatura como possíveis implementações do bit quântico (qubit). Esta perda de coerência quântica ocorre devido ao inevitável acoplamento do sistema de interesse com o seu ambiente. Como os estados de superposição quântica são a chave para a realização de operações baseadas na lógica quântica, tem-se que tais processos limitam ou até mesmo impedem o uso de determinados sistemas na esperada realização física do computador quântico. Os sistemas de matéria condensada padecem de uma dificuldade maior para se isolar o qubit do seu ambiente, o que acarreta, em geral, na observação de tempos de coerência piores do que os encontrados em seus concorrentes. Por outro lado, a possibilidade de construção de vários qubits acoplados e de manipulação de cada um de modo individual, usando-se técnicas convencionais de engenharia, têm impulsionado esforços nestes tipos de dispositivos. Os sistemas abordados na tese foram: qubits supercondutores contendo junções Josephson; e qubits de pontos quânticos. Para a investigação completa do primeiro tipo tivemos que desenvolver o modelo Caldeira-Leggett para o caso de várias fontes de dissipação acopladas ao qubit. Com a prescrição apresentada aqui, pudemos determinar o número de banhos de osciladores necessários para a correta descrição das fontes, e verificar que as taxas totais de relaxação e de descoerência não são necessariamente as somas das taxas devido a cada fonte individualmente. Além disso, pudemos aplicar o formalismo desenvolvido no estudo de um qubit de uxo em investigação. Para o sistema de pontos quânticos seguimos a linha de determinação do banho efetivo visto pelo grau de liberdade de spin do elétron aprisionado no ponto quântico. Determinada a função espectral efetiva, pudemos encontrar soluções analíticas para a dinâmica do valor esperado para cada uma das componentes de spin s x,y,z. o que permitiu uma análise completa dos efeitos de cada parâmetro físico do sistema. Em ambos os casos, fomos capazes de indicar os melhores regimes de operação de cada qubit, e dar estimativas dos tempos de relaxação e de descoerência / Abstract: The purpose of this thesis was to study the process of loss of quantum coherence, named decoherence, in condensed matter systems cited in the literature as possible candidates for the implementation of a quantum bit (qubit). Decoherence occurs due to the inevitable coupling of the system of interest to its environment. Once the quantum superposition states are the key to perform operations based on quantum logic, these processes limit, or even hinder, the utilization of some of those systems in the physical realization of the quantum computer. Relatively to its competitors, condensed matter systems usually present a higher degree of difficulty as one tries to minimize the coupling between the qubit and its environment, which, generally, worsens its coherence time observations. On the other hand, these devices present advantages which stimulates its study, such as: the possibility of construction of several coupled qubits and the possibility of manipulating each one individually, using conventional engineering techniques. The systems studied in this thesis were: superconducting qubits with Josephson junctions; and electronic spins quantum dots. Aiming at a complete investigation of the first system, we developed the Caldeira-Leggett model for the case of several dissipation sources coupled to the qubit. With the prescription presented here, we determine the number of oscillator baths needed to the correct description of the noise sources, and verify that the total relaxation and decoherence rates are not necessarily the sum of the individual rates relative to each source. Moreover, we applied this formalism to the study of a ux qubit currently under investigation. For the quantum dot qubits, we employed the effective bath approach to treat the dynamics of the spin of the electron localized in the quantum dot. As a result, we found analytical solutions for the dynamics of the average value of each one of the spin components s x,y,z . In both cases, we indicated the best operational regime of each qubit and gave estimates of the relaxation and decoherence times / Doutorado / Física da Matéria Condensada / Doutor em Ciências

No description available.