Machine-learning-assisted efficient reconstruction of the quantum states generated from the Sagnac polarization-entangled photon source

Neural networks are becoming ubiquitous in various areas of physics as a successful machine learning(ML)technique for addressing different tasks.Based on ML technique,we propose and experimentally demonstrate an efficient method for state reconstruction of the widely used Sagnac polarization-entangled photon source.By properly modeling the target states,a multi-output fully connected neural network is well trained using only six of the sixteen measurement bases in standard tomography technique,and hence our method reduces the resource consumption without loss of accuracy.We demonstrate the ability of the neural network to predict state parameters with a high precision by using both simulated and experimental data.Explicitly,the mean absolute error for all the parameters is below 0.05 for the simulated data and a mean fidelity of 0.99 is achieved for experimentally generated states.Our method could be generalized to estimate other kinds of states,as well as other quantum information tasks.

Ultrasensitive Mechanical Sensor Using Tunable Ordered Array of Metallic and Insulating States in Vanadium Dioxide

Detecting tiny deformations or vibrations, particularly those associated with strains below 1%, is essential in various technological applications. Traditional intrinsic materials, including metals and semiconductors, face challenges in simultaneously achieving initial metallic state and strain-induced insulating state, hindering the development of highly sensitive mechanical sensors. Here we report an ultrasensitive mechanical sensor based on a strain-induced tunable ordered array of metallic and insulating states in the single-crystal bronze-phase vanadium dioxide [VO_(2)(B)] quantum material. It is shown that the initial metallic state in the VO_(2)(B) flake can be tuned to the insulating state by applying a weak uniaxial tensile strain. Such a unique property gives rise to a record-high gauge factor of above 607970, surpassing previous values by an order of magnitude, with excellent linearity and mechanical resilience as well as durability. As a proof-of-concept application, we use our proposed mechanical sensor to demonstrate precise sensing of the micro piece, gentle airflows and water droplets. We attribute the superior performance of the sensor to the strain-induced continuous metal-insulator transition in the single-crystal VO_(2)(B) flake, evidenced by experimental and simulation results. Our findings highlight the potential of exploiting correlated quantum materials for next-generation ultrasensitive flexible mechanical sensors, addressing critical limitations in traditional materials.

Generation of broadband polarization-orthogonal photon pairs via the dispersion-engineered thin-film lithium niobate waveguide

Broadband photon pairs are highly desirable for quantum metrology,quantum sensing,and quantum communication.Such sources are usually designed through type-0 phase-matching spontaneous parametric down-conversion(SPDC)that makes the photon pairs hard to separate in the frequency-degenerate case and thus limits their applications.In this paper,we design a broadband frequency-degenerate telecom-band photon pair source via the type-II SPDC in a dispersion-engineered thin-film lithium niobate waveguide,where the polarization modes of photon pairs are orthogonal and thus are easily separated deterministically.With a 5-mm-long waveguide,our design can achieve a bandwidth of 5.56 THz(44.8 nm),which is 8.6 times larger than that of the bulk lithium niobate,and the central wavelength can be flexibly adjusted.Our design is a promising approach towards high-quality integrated photon sources and may have wide applications in photonic quantum technologies.

Improving the electrical performances of InSe transistors by interface engineering

InSe has emerged as a promising candidate for next-generation electronics due to its predicted ultrahigh electrical performance.However,the efficacy of the InSe transistor in meeting application requirements is hindered due to its sensitivity to interfaces.In this study,we have achieved notable enhancement in the electrical performance of InSe transistors through interface engineering.We engineered an InSe/h-BN heterostructure,effectively suppressing dielectric layer-induced scattering.Additionally,we successfully established excellent metal-semiconductor contacts using graphene ribbons as a buffer layer.Through a methodical approach to interface engineering,our graphene/InSe/h-BN transistor demonstrates impressive on-state current,field-effect mobility,and on/off ratio at room temperature,reaching values as high as 1.1 mA/μm,904 cm^(2)·V^(-1)·s^(-1),and>10~6,respectively.Theoretical computations corroborate that the graphene/InSe heterostructure shows significant interlayer charge transfer and weak interlayer interaction,contributing to the enhanced performance of InSe transistors.This research offers a comprehensive strategy to elevate the electrical performance of InSe transistors,paving the way for their utilization in future electronic applications.

Comparative study on phase transition behaviors of fractional molecular field theory and random-site Ising model

Fractional molecular field theory(FMFT)is a phenomenological theory that describes phase transitions in crystals with randomly distributed components,such as the relaxor-ferroelectrics and spin glasses.In order to verify the feasibility of this theory,this paper fits it to the Monte Carlo simulations of specific heat and susceptibility versus temperature of two-dimensional(2D)random-site Ising model(2D-RSIM).The results indicate that the FMFT deviates from the 2D-RSIM significantly.The main reason for the deviation is that the 2D-RSIM is a typical system of component random distribution,where the real order parameter is spatially heterogeneous and has no symmetry of space translation,but the basic assumption of FMFT means that the parameter is spatially uniform and has symmetry of space translation.

Enhancing the crystallinity and stability of perovskite solar cells with 4-tert-butylpyridine induction for efficiency exceeding 24%

Perovskite solar cells(PSCs)have emerged as a promising photovoltaic technology because of their high light absorption coefficient,long carrier diffusion distance,and tunable bandgap.However,PSCs face challenges such as hysteresis effects and stability issues.In this study,we introduced a novel approach to improve film crystallization by leveraging 4-tert-butylpyridine(TBP)molecules,thereby enhancing the performance and stability of PSCs.Our findings demonstrate the effective removal of PbI_(2)from the perovskite surface through strong coordination with TBP molecules.Additionally,by carefully adjusting the concentration of the TBP solution,we achieved enhanced film crystallinity without disrupting the perovskite structure.The TBP-treated perovskite films exhibit a low defect density,improved crystallinity,and improved carrier lifetime.As a result,the PSCs manufactured with TBP treatment achieve power conversion efficiency(PCE)exceeding 24%.Moreover,we obtained the PCE of 21.39%for the 12.25 cm^(2)module.

Oscillation of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction driven by weak electric fields

Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction(DMI) is under extensive investigation considering its crucial status in chiral magnetic orders, such as Néel-type domain wall(DW) and skyrmions. It has been reported that the interfacial DMI originating from Rashba spin–orbit coupling(SOC) can be linearly tuned with strong external electric fields. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that the strength of DMI exhibits rapid fluctuations, ranging from 10% to 30% of its original value, as a function of applied electric fields in Pt/Co/MgO heterostructures within the small field regime(< 10-2V/nm). Brillouin light scattering(BLS) experiments have been performed to measure DMI, and first-principles calculations show agreement with this observation, which can be explained by the variation in orbital hybridization at the Co/MgO interface in response to the weak electric fields. Our results on voltage control of DMI(VCDMI) suggest that research related to the voltage control of magnetic anisotropy for spin–orbit torque or the motion control of skyrmions might also have to consider the role of the external electric field on DMI as small voltages are generally used for the magnetoresistance detection.

Diagnosing quantum crosstalk in superconducting quantum chips by using out-of-time-order correlators

Performance of a scalable quantum processor critically relies on minimizing crosstalk and unwanted interactions within the system,as it is vital for parallel controlled operations on qubits.We present a protocol not only to provide information about residual coupling but also to effectively discriminate it from the influence of classical crosstalk.Our approach utilizes out-of-time-order correlators(OTOCs)as a signal of quantum crosstalk,making it applicable to various coupling forms and scalable architectures.To demonstrate the effectiveness of our protocol,we provide a theoretical analysis and simulate its implementation in coupled superconducting qubits.

Individual dynamics and local heterogeneity provide a microscopic view of the epidemic spreading

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe global disasters,highlighting the importance of understanding the details and trends of epidemic transmission in order to introduce efficient intervention measures.While the widely used deterministic compartmental models have qualitatively presented continuous “analytical” insight and captured some transmission features,their treatment usually lacks spatiotemporal variation.Here,we propose a stochastic individual dynamical(SID)model to mimic the random and heterogeneous nature of epidemic propagation.The SID model provides a unifying framework for representing the spatiotemporal variations of epidemic development by tracking the movements of each individual.Using this model,we reproduce the infection curves for COVID-19 cases in different areas globally and find the local dynamics and heterogeneity at the individual level that affect the disease outbreak.The macroscopic trend of virus spreading is clearly illustrated from the microscopic perspective,enabling a quantitative assessment of different interventions.Seemingly,this model is also applicable to studying stochastic processes at the “meter scale”,e.g.,human society’s collective dynamics.

Manipulating the Spatial Structure of Second-Order Quantum Coherence Using Entangled Photons

High-order quantum coherence reveals the statistical correlation of quantum particles. Manipulation of quantum coherence of light in the temporal domain enables the production of the single-photon source, which has become one of the most important quantum resources. High-order quantum coherence in the spatial domain plays a crucial role in a variety of applications, such as quantum imaging, holography, and microscopy. However, the active control of second-order spatial quantum coherence remains a challenging task. Here we predict theoretically and demonstrate experimentally the first active manipulation of second-order spatial quantum coherence,which exhibits the capability of switching between bunching and anti-bunching, by mapping the entanglement of spatially structured photons. We also show that signal processing based on quantum coherence exhibits robust resistance to intensity disturbance. Our findings not only enhance existing applications but also pave the way for broader utilization of higher-order spatial quantum coherence.

Prediction of novel tetravalent metal pentazolate salts with anharmonic effect

In recent decades,pentazolate salts have gained considerable attention as high energy density materials(HEDMs).Using the machine-learning accelerated structure searching method,we predicted four pentazolate salts stabilized with tetravalent metals(Ti-N and Zr-N).Specifically,the ground state MN_(20)(M=Ti,Zr)adopts the space-group P 4/mcc under ambient conditions,transforming into the I-4 phase at higher pressure.Moreover,the I-4-MN_(20)becomes energetically stable at moderate pressure(46.8 GPa for TiN_(20),38.7 GPa for ZrN_(20)).Anharmonic phonon spectrum calculations demonstrate the dynamic stabilities of these MN_(20)phases.Among them,the P 4/mcc phase can be quenched to 0 GPa.Further ab-initio molecular dynamic simulations suggest that the N_(5)rings within these MN_(20)systems can still maintain integrity at finite temperatures.Calculations of the projected crystal orbital Hamilton population and reduced density gradient revealed their covalent and noncovalent interactions,respectively.The aromaticity of the N_(5)ring was investigated by molecular orbital theory.Finally,we predicted that these MN_(20)compounds have very high energy densities and exhibit good detonation velocities and pressures,compared to the HMX explosive.These calculations enrich the family of pentazolate compounds and may also guide future experiments.

Effect of Impurity on the Doping-Induced in-Gap States in a Mott Insulator

Motivated by the recent measurements of the spatial distribution of single particle excitation states in a hole-doped Mott insulator,we study the effects of impurity on the in-gap states,induced by the doped holes,in the Hubbard model on the square lattice by the cluster perturbation theory.We find that a repulsive impurity potential can move the in-gap state from the lower Hubbard band towards the upper Hubbard band,providing a good account for the experimental observation.The distribution of the spectral function in the momentum space can be used to discriminate the in-gap state induced by doped holes and that by the impurity.The spatial characters of the in-gap states in the presence of two impurities are also discussed and compared to the experiment.

Direct measurement of nonlocal quantum states without approximation

Efficient acquiring information from a quantum state is important for research in fundamental quantum physics and quantum information applications. Instead of using standard quantum state tomography method with reconstruction algorithm, weak values were proposed to directly measure density matrix elements of quantum state. Recently, similar to the concept of weak value, modular values were introduced to extend the direct measurement scheme to nonlocal quantum wavefunction. However, this method still involves approximations, which leads to inherent low precision. Here, we propose a new scheme which enables direct measurement for ideal value of the nonlocal density matrix element without taking approximations. Our scheme allows more accurate characterization of nonlocal quantum states, and therefore has greater advantages in practical measurement scenarios.

Competition of Quantum Anomalous Hall States and Charge Density Wave in a Correlated Topological Model

We investigate the topological phase transition driven by non-local electronic correlations in a realistic quantum anomalous Hall model consisting of d_(xy)–d_(x^(2)-y^(2)) orbitals. Three topologically distinct phases defined in the noninteracting limit evolve to different charge density wave phases under correlations. Two conspicuous conclusions were obtained: The topological phase transition does not involve gap-closing and the dynamical fluctuations significantly suppress the charge order favored by the next nearest neighbor interaction. Our study sheds light on the stability of topological phase under electronic correlations, and we demonstrate a positive role played by dynamical fluctuations that is distinct to all previous studies on correlated topological states.

The application of reed-vibration mechanical spectroscopy for liquids to detect chemical reactions of an acrylic structural adhesive

There remain a number of unsolved problems about chemical reactions, and it is significant to explore new detection methods because they always offer some unique information about reactions from new points of view. For the first time, the solidification course of a modified two-component acrylic structural adhesive is measured by using reed-vibration mechanical spectroscopy for liquids （RMS-L） in this work, and results show that there are four sequential processes of mechanical spectra with time. The in-depth analyses indicate that RMS-L can detect in real-time the generation and disappearance of active free radicals, as well as the chemical cross-link processes in the adhesive. This kind of real-time detection will undoubtedly facilitate the study of the chemical reaction dynamics controlled by free radicals.

Using monochromatic light to measure attenuation length of liquid scintillator solvent LAB

Linear alkylbenzene(LAB) will be used as solvent for the liquid scintillator in the central detector of Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. The sheer size of the detector imposes significant challenges and the necessity to further improve the optical transparency of high-quality LAB. In order to study high optical transparencies, we continuously improve our measurement setup and use monochromatic light to measure the attenuation lengths of LAB samples. Moreover, the effects of organic impurities on LAB samples are studied to understand their interaction mechanisms and further improve the optical transparency of LAB.

Dynamic shaping of vectorial optical fields based on two-dimensional blazed holographic grating

We propose a vectorial optical field generation system based on two-dimensional blazed grating to high-efficiently generate structured optical fields with prescribed amplitude,phase,and polarization.In this system,an optimized blazed grating hologram is written on a spatial light modulator(SLM)and can diffract the majority of the incident light into the first-order diffractions of the x and y directions,which then serve as base vectors for synthesizing desired vector beams.Compared with the conventional cosine grating used in the previous work,the proposed two-dimensional,blazed grating has a much higher efficiency.Both computer simulation and optical experiment validate that a conversion efficiency up to 5 times that of the former work is achieved.Our method can facilitate applications of the optical field manipulation.

Structural and electrical properties of laser-crystallized nanocrystalline Ge films and nanocrystalline Ge/SiN_x multilayers

Nanocrystalline Ge （nc-Ge） single layers and nc-Ge/SiNx multilayers are prepared by laser annealing amorphous Ge （a-Ge） films and a-Ge/SiNx multilayers. The microstructures as well as the electrical properties of laser-crystallized samples are systematically studied by using various techniques. It is found that the optical band gap of nc-Ge film is reduced compared with its amorphous counterpart. The formed nc-Ge film is of p-type, and the dark conductivity is enhanced by 6 orders for an nc-Ge single layer and 4 orders for a multilayer. It is suggested that the carrier transport mechanism is dominant by the thermally activation process via the nanocrystal, which is different from the thermally annealed nc-Ge sample at an intermediate temperature. The carrier mobility of nc-Ge film can reach as high as about 39.4 cm2.V ^-1 .s^-1, which indicates their potential applications in future nano-devices.

Effect of chromium substitution on structural, electrical and magnetic properties of NiZn ferrites

Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2-xCrxO4(0≤x≤0.5)ferrites were successfully prepared by conventional solid state reaction method to investigate the effect of chromium substitution on the structural,electrical and magnetic properties.X-ray powder diffraction results demonstrate that all the prepared samples are well crystallized single-phase spinel structures without secondary phase.As chromium concentration increases,the lattice parameter and crystallite size gradually decrease.The magnetic measurement indicates that saturation magnetization is substantially suppressed by Cr3+doping,changing from 73.5 A·m2/kg at x=0 to 46.3 A·m2/kg at x=0.5.While the room-temperature electrical resistivity is more than four orders of magnitude enhanced by Cr3+substitution,reaching up to 1.1×108Ω·cm at x=0.5.The dielectric constant monotonously decreases with rising frequency for these ferrites,showing a normal dielectric dispersion behavior.The compositional dependence of dielectric constant is inverse with that of electrical resistivity,which originates from the reduced Fe2+/Fe3+electric dipole number by doping,indicating inherent correlation between polarization and conduction mechanism in ferrite.

Effect of thickness variations of lithium niobate on insulator waveguide on the frequency spectrum of spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We study the effect of waveguide thickness variations on the frequency spectrum of spontaneous parametric downconversion in the periodically-poled lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI)waveguide.We analyze several variation models and our simulation results show that thickness variations in several nanometers can induce distinct effects on the central peak of the spectrum,such as narrowing,broadening,and splitting.We also prove that the effects of positive and negative variations can be canceled and thus lead to a variation-robust feature and an ultra-broad bandwidth.Our study may promote the development of on-chip photon sources in the LNOI platform,as well as opens up a way to engineer photon frequency state.