Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Lyon, S. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Lyon, S. A..

11 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Factors influencing quantum evaporation of helium from polar semiconductors from first principles

While there is much indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter (DM), to date it has evaded detection. Current efforts focus on DM masses over ~GeV—to push the sensitivity of DM searches to lower masses, new DM targets and detection schemes are needed. In this work, we focus on the latter—a novel detection scheme recently proposed to detect 10–100 meV phonons in polar target materials. Previous work showed that well-motivated models of DM can interact with polar semiconductors to produce an athermal population of phonons. This new sensing scheme proposes that these phonons then facilitate quantum evaporation of 3 He from a van der Waals film deposited on the target material. However, a fundamental understanding of the underlying process is still unclear, with several uncertainties related to the precise rate of evaporation and how it can be controlled. In this work, we use ab initio density functional theory calculations to compare the adsorption energies of helium atoms on a polar target material, sodium iodide, to understand the underlying evaporation physics. We explore the role of surface termination, monolayer coverage, and elemental species on the rate of He evaporation from the target material. Using this, we discuss the optimal target features for He-evaporation experiments and their range of tunability through chemical and physical modifications such as applied field and surface termination.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Measurement of High Density Electrons Above a Helium Film on an Amorphous Metal Substrate

Here we have measured two-dimensional electron systems bound to a thin helium film supported by a metallic substrate. We report on our measurement of electron density obtained via a Kelvin probe technique. The underlying metallic substrate is an amorphous metallic alloy (TaWSi), which can support large uniform densities due to its low surface roughness and homogeneous work function. We find that this substrate is able to support high enough densities that the electrons are expected to be Fermi-degenerate.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier: The landscape of low-threshold dark matter direct detection in the next decade

The search for particle-like dark matter with meV-to-GeV masses has developed rapidly in the past few years. We summarize the science case for these searches, the recent progress, and the exciting upcoming opportunities. Funding for Research and Development and a portfolio of small dark matter projects will allow the community to capitalize on the substantial recent advances in theory and experiment and probe vast regions of unexplored dark-matter parameter space in the coming decade.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Transport Measurements of Surface Electrons in 200-nm-Deep Helium-Filled Microchannels Above Amorphous Metallic Electrodes

We report transport measurements of electrons on helium in a microchannel device where the channels are 200 nm deep and 3μm wide. The channels are fabricated above amorphous metallic Ta 40 W 40 Si 20 , which has surface roughness below 1 nm and minimal variations in work function across the surface due to the absence of polycrystalline grains. We are able to set the electron density in the channels using a ground plane. We estimate a mobility of 300cm 2 /Vs and electron densities as high as 2.56×10 9 cm -2 . We demonstrate control of the transport using a barrier which enables pinch-off at a central microchannel connecting two reservoirs. The conductance through the central microchannel is measured to be 10 nS for an electron density of 1.58×10 9 cm -2 . Lastly, our work extends transport measurements of surface electrons to thin helium films in microchannel devices above metallic substrates.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Multi-frequency spin manipulation using rapidly tunable superconducting coplanar waveguide microresonators

In this work, we demonstrate the use of frequency-tunable superconducting NbTiN coplanar waveguide microresonators for multi-frequency pulsed electron spin resonance (ESR) experiments. By applying a bias current to the center pin, the resonance frequency (~7.6 GHz) can be continuously tuned by as much as 95 MHz in 270 ns without a change in the quality factor of 3000 at 2 K. We demonstrate the ESR performance of our resonators by measuring donor spin ensembles in silicon and show that adiabatic pulses can be used to overcome magnetic field inhomogeneities and microwave power limitations due to the applied bias current. We take advantage of the rapid tunability of these resonators to manipulate both phosphorus and arsenic spins in a single pulse sequence, demonstrating pulsed double electron-electron resonance. Our NbTiN resonator design is useful for multi-frequency pulsed ESR and should also have applications in experiments where spin ensembles are used as quantum memories.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Spin coherence and 14N ESEEM effects of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond with X-band pulsed ESR

Pulsed ESR experiments are reported for ensembles of negatively-charged nitrogen-vacancy centers (NV - ) in diamonds at X-band magnetic fields (280–400 mT) and low temperatures (2–70 K). The NV - centers in synthetic type IIa diamonds (nitrogen impurity concentration < 1 ppm) are prepared with bulk concentrations of 2 • 10 13 cm -3 to 4• 10 14 cm -3 by high-energy electron irradiation and subsequent annealing. We find that a proper post-radiation anneal (1000°C for 60 min) is very important to repair the radiation damage and to recover long electron spin coherence times for NV - s. After the annealing, spin coherence times of T 2 = 0.74ms at 5 K are achieved, being only limited by 13 C nuclear spectral diffusion in natural abundance diamonds. By measuring the temperature dependence of T 2 in the under-annealed diamonds (900°C) we directly extract the density (10 14 -16 cm -3 ) and activation energy (2.5 meV) of unannealed defects responsible for the faster NV - decoherence. At X-band magnetic fields, strong electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) is observed originating from the central 14 N nucleus, and we extract accurate 14 N nuclear hypefine and quadrupole tensors. In addition, the ESEEM effects from two proximal 13 C sites (second-nearest neighbor and fourth-nearest neighbor) are resolved and the respective 13 C hyperfine coupling constants are extracted.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Surface code architecture for donors and dots in silicon with imprecise and nonuniform qubit couplings

A scaled quantum computer with donor spins in silicon would benefit from a viable semiconductor framework and a strong inherent decoupling of the qubits from the noisy environment. Coupling neighboring spins via the natural exchange interaction according to current designs requires gate control structures with extremely small length scales. In this work, we present a silicon architecture where bismuth donors with long coherence times are coupled to electrons that can shuttle between adjacent quantum dots, thus relaxing the pitch requirements and allowing space between donors for classical control devices. An adiabatic SWAP operation within each donor/dot pair solves the scalability issues intrinsic to exchange-based two-qubit gates, as it does not rely on subnanometer precision in donor placement and is robust against noise in the control fields. In conclusion, we use this SWAP together with well established global microwave Rabi pulses and parallel electron shuttling to construct a surface code that needs minimal, feasible local control.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fast, low-power manipulation of spin ensembles in superconducting microresonators

We demonstrate the use of high-Q superconducting coplanar waveguide (CPW) microresonators to perform rapid manipulations on a randomly distributed spin ensemble using very low microwave power (400 nW). This power is compatible with dilution refrigerators, making microwave manipulation of spin ensembles feasible for quantum computing applications. We also describe the use of adiabatic microwave pulses to overcome microwave magnetic field (B{sub 1}) inhomogeneities inherent to CPW resonators. This allows for uniform control over a randomly distributed spin ensemble. Sensitivity data are reported showing a single shot (no signal averaging) sensitivity to 10{sup 7} spins or 3×10{sup 4}spins/√(Hz) with averaging.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Stark shift and field ionization of arsenic donors in {sup 28}Si-silicon-on-insulator structures

We develop an efficient back gate for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices operating at cryogenic temperatures and measure the quadratic hyperfine Stark shift parameter of arsenic donors in isotopically purified {sup 28}Si-SOI layers using such structures. The back gate is implemented using MeV ion implantation through the SOI layer forming a metallic electrode in the handle wafer, enabling large and uniform electric fields up to 2 V/μm to be applied across the SOI layer. Utilizing this structure, we measure the Stark shift parameters of arsenic donors embedded in the {sup 28}Si-SOI layer and find a contact hyperfine Stark parameter of η{sub a} = −1.9 ± 0.7 × 10{sup −3} μm{sup 2}/V{sup 2}. We also demonstrate electric-field driven dopant ionization in the SOI device layer, measured by electron spin resonance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗