Giuseppe Falci

• Ph.D.
• Managing Director at University of Catania

The occurrence of a second-order superradiant quantum phase transition is brought to light in a quantum system consisting of two interacting qubits coupled to the same quantized field mode. We introduce an appropriate thermodynamic limit for the integrable two-qubit quantum Rabi model with spin-spin interaction. Namely, this limit is determined by...

Magnus expansion is used to identify effective Hamiltonians de- scribing the coarse-grained dynamics of more complex problems. Here, we apply this method to a two-level system driven by an AC field. We derive Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts of both diagonal and off-diagonal entries of the Hamiltonian as a result of coarse graining only.

Magnus expansion is used to identify effective Hamiltonians describing the coarse-grained dynamics of more complex problems. Here, we apply this method to a two-level system driven by an and AC field. We derive Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifs of both diagonal and off-diagonal entries of the Hamiltonian as a result of coarse-graining only.

Ultrastrong coupling may allow faster operations for the development of quantum technologies at the expenses of increased sensitivity to new kind of intrinsic errors. We study state transfer in superconducting circuit QED architectures in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Using optimal control methods we find a protocol resilient to the main source...

Quantum Optimal Control is an established field of research which is necessary for the development of Quantum Technologies. Quantum Machine Learning is a fast emerging field in which the theory of Quantum Mechanics and Machine Learning fuse together in order to learn and benefit from each other. In particular, Reinforcement Learning has a direct ap...

We deploy a combination of reinforcement learning-based approaches and more traditional optimization techniques to identify optimal protocols for population transfer in a multi-level system. We constraint our strategy to the case of fixed coupling rates but time-varying detunings, a situation that would simplify considerably the implementation of p...

Dynamically probing systems of ultrastrongly coupled light and matter by advanced coherent control have been recently proposed as a unique tool for detecting peculiar quantum features of this regime. Coherence allows in principle on-demand conversion of virtual photons dressing the entangled eigenstates of the system to real ones, with unitary effi...

We investigate critical current noise in short ballistic graphene Josephson junctions in the open-circuit gate-voltage limit within the McWorther model. We find flicker noise in a wide frequency range and discuss the temperature dependence of the noise amplitude as a function of the doping level. At the charge neutrality point we find a singular te...

Dynamically probing systems of ultrastrongly coupled light and matter by advanced coherent control has been recently proposed as a unique tool for detecting peculiar quantum features of this regime. Coherence allows in principle on-demand conversion of virtual photons dressing the entangled eigenstates of the system to real ones, with unitary effic...

The coherent nonlinear process where a single photon simultaneously excites two or more two-level systems (qubits) in a single-mode resonator has recently been theoretically predicted. Here we explore the case where the two qubits are placed in different resonators in an array of two or three weakly coupled resonators. Investigating different setup...

We investigate critical current noise in short ballistic graphene Josephson junctions in the open-circuit gate-voltage limit within the McWorther model. We find flicker noise in a wide frequency range and discuss the temperature dependence of the noise amplitude as a function of the doping level. At the charge neutrality point we find a singular te...

Graphene-based devices show $1/f$ low-frequency noise in several electronic transport properties, such as mobility and charge carrier concentration. The recent outburst of experimental studies on graphene-based devices integrated into circuit quantum electrodynamics systems has rekindled the interest in low-frequency charge noise. We investigate ch...

Short ballistic graphene Josephson junctions sustain superconducting current with a non-sinusoidal current-phase relation up to a critical current threshold. The current-phase relation, arising from proximitized superconductivity, is gate-voltage tunable and exhibits peculiar skewness observed in high quality graphene superconductors heterostructur...

Defects, e.g., Vacancies (Vs) and Defect-impurity centers, e.g., Nitrogen-Vacancy complexes (NVs), in group IV materials (diamond, SiC, graphene) are unique systems for Quantum Technologies (QT). The control of their positioning is a key issue for any realistic QT application and their tailored inclusion during controlled crystal-growth processes c...

The coherent nonlinear process where a single photon simultaneously excites two or more two-level systems (qubits) in a single-mode resonator has recently been theoretically predicted [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 043601 (2016)]. Here we explore the case where the two qubits are placed in different resonators in an array of two or three weakly coupled res...

Short ballistic graphene Josephson junctions sustain superconducting current with a non-sinusoidal current-phase relation up to a critical current threshold. The current-phase relation, arising from proximitized superconductivity, is gate-voltage tunable and exhibits peculiar skewness observed in high quality graphene superconductors heterostructur...

We consider a three-node fully connected network (Delta network) showing that a coherent population trapping phenomenon occurs, generalizing results for the Lambda network known to support a dark state. Transport in such structures provides signatures of detrapping, which can be triggered by external controls. In the presence of an environment it t...

Dynamical decoupling sequences are a convenient tool to reduce decoherence due to intrinsic fluctuations with 1 / f power spectrum hindering quantum circuits. We study the possibility to achieve an efficient universal two-qubit gate in the presence of 1 / f noise by periodic and Carr-Purcell dynamical decoupling. The high degree of selectivity achi...

Graphene Josephson Junctions (GJJ) in the regime of ballistic transport where current is carried by discrete energy states of Andreev-reflected coherent electron-hole pairs have been recently demonstrated in graphene heterostructures. Due to the non-linear current-phase relation, GJJ can be used as a sensitive probe of underlying microscopic noise...

Ultrastrongly coupled quantum hardware may increase the speed of quantum state processing in distributed architectures, allowing to approach fault-tolerant threshold. We show that circuit QED architectures in the ultrastrong coupling regime, which has been recently demonstrated with superconductors, may show substantial speedup for a class of adiab...

Light-matter interaction, and the understanding of the fundamental physics behind, is a scenario where new quantum technologies are developing, since the demonstration of strong-coupling dynam- ics as described by the Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model 1 . Solid state devices allow the exploration of the new regime of ultrastrong coupling (USC) where the r...

The 11th Italian Quantum Information Science conference (IQIS 2018) took place in Catania, Italy, at the Monastero dei Benedettini, from September 17 to 20, 2018. IQIS 2018 was organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy “E. Majorana” of the University of Catania, and by IMM-CNR, Catania. The conference also hosted an event dedicated to th...

A computational approach that couples molecular-dynamics (MD) and the-finite-element-method (FEM) technique is here proposed for the theoretical study of the dynamics of particles subjected to electromechanical forces. The system consists of spherical particles (modeled as micrometric rigid bodies with proper densities and dielectric functions) sus...

Ultrastrongly coupled quantum hardware may increase the speed of quantum state processing in distributed architectures, allowing to approach fault-tolerant threshold. We show that circuit QED architectures in the ultrastrong coupling regime, which has been recently demonstrated with superconductors, may show substantial speedup for a class of adiab...

Artificial atoms (AAs) offer the possibility to design physical systems implementing new regimes of ultrastrong coupling (USC) between radiation and matter [C. Ciuti et al., Phys. Rev. B 72, 115303 (2005)], where previously unexplored non-perturbative physics emerges. While experiments so far provided only spectroscopic evidence of USC, we propose...

Controlling the dynamics of entanglement and preventing its disappearance are central requisites for any implementation of quantum information processing. Many solid state qubits are affected by non-Markovian noise, often with 1/f spectrum. Leading order dephasing effects are captured by treating noise in the quasistatic approximation. In this arti...

We studied the effect of cavity losses, which is the main decoherence mechanism for the present USC architectures. The new quantum protocol investigated is seen to be resilient to decay due to leakage from the cavity, as long as this latter is not populated. Reliable operations can be performed for moderate couplings, allowing to operate faster tha...

Artificial atoms (AA) offer the possibility to design physical systems implementing new regimes of ultrastrong coupling (USC) between radiation and matter, where previously unexplored non-perturbative physics emerges. While experiments so far provided only spectroscopic evidence of USC, we propose the dynamical detection of virtual photon pairs in...

Light-matter interaction, and the understanding of the fundamental physics behind, is the scenario of emerging quantum technologies. Solid state devices allow the exploration of new regimes where ultrastrong coupling (USC) strengths are comparable to subsystem energies, and new exotic phenomena like quantum phase transitions and ground-state entang...

Particles with sizes in range from sub-micrometer to about 1 millimeter and whit particular electrical and/or magnetic properties, experience mechanical forces and torques when are subjected to electromagnetic fields (this type of particles are called “electromechanical particles”). The theoretical study of these large class of complex systems is p...

We propose a fully operational framework to study the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a quantum system $S$ that is coupled to a detector $D$ whose state is continuously monitored, allowing to single out individual quantum trajectories of $S$. We focus on detailed fluctuation theorems and characterize the entropy production of the system. We estab...

Advanced control in Lambda ($\Lambda$) scheme of a solid state architecture of artificial atoms and quantized modes would allow the translation to the solid-state realm of a whole class of phenomena from quantum optics, thus exploiting new physics emerging in larger integrated quantum networks and for stronger couplings. However control solid-state...

We propose a fully operational framework to study the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a quantum system $S$ that is coupled to a detector $D$ whose state is continuously monitored, allowing to single out individual quantum trajectories of $S$. We focus on detailed fluctuation theorems and characterize the entropy production of the system. We estab...

Particles (with sizes in range from sub-micrometer to about 1 millimeter) whit particular electrical and/or magnetic properties, experience mechanical forces and torques when are subjected to electromagnetic fields (this type of particles are called “electromechanical particles”). Some of the phenomena that affect electromechanical particles are: e...

We introduce and analyze theoretically a procedure that combines slow adiabatic stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) manipulation with short nonadiabatic Rabi pulses to produce any desired three-level state in a qutrit system. In this protocol, the fast pulses create superpositions between the ground state and the first excited state, while...

Advanced control in Lambda (Λ) scheme of a solid state architecture of artificial atoms and quantized modes would allow the translation to the solid-state realm of a whole class of phenomena from quantum optics, thus exploiting new physics emerging in larger integrated quantum networks and for stronger couplings. However control solid-state devices...

When measuring quantum mechanical properties of charge transport in mesoscopic conductors, backaction effects occur. We consider a measurement setup with an elementary quantum circuit, composed of an inductance and a capacitor, as detector of the current flowing in a nearby quantum point contact. A quantum Langevin equation for the detector variabl...

We investigate the possibility to achieve high-fidelity universal two-qubit gates by supplementing optimal tuning of individual qubits with dynamical decoupling (DD) of local 1/f noise. We consider simultaneous local pulse sequences applied during the gate operation and compare the efficiencies of periodic, Carr-Purcell and Uhrig DD with hard $\pi$...

We investigate the possibility to achieve high-fidelity universal two-qubit gates by supplementing optimal tuning of individual qubits with dynamical decoupling (DD) of local 1/f noise. We consider simultaneous local pulse sequences applied during the gate operation and compare the efficiencies of periodic, Carr-Purcell and Uhrig DD with hard $\pi$...

We study the performance of a partially correlated amplitude damping channel acting on two qubits. We derive lower bounds for the single-shot classical capacity by studying two kinds of quantum ensembles, one which allows to maximize the Holevo quantity for the memoryless channel and the other allowing the same task but for the full-memory channel....

Achieving high-fidelity universal two-qubit gates is a central requisite of any implementation of quantum information processing. The presence of spurious fluctuators of various physical origin represents a limiting factor for superconducting nanodevices. Operating qubits at optimal points, where the qubit-fluctuator interaction is transverse with...

We propose a new protocol for thr manipulation of a three-level artificial atom in Lambda ($\Lambda$) configuration in the absence of a direct pump coupling. It allows faithful, selective and robust population transfer analogous to stimulated Raman adiabatic passage ($\Lambda$-STIRAP), in highly noise protected superconducting artificial atoms. It...

Optimizing excitation transport in quantum networks is an important precursor to the development of highly-efficient light-harvesting devices. We investigate the phenomenon of dephasing-assisted leakage from trapped states, which may ensure efficient transport of excitations across a network. We consider three small networks with known trapped stat...

In this paper we propose a new protocol to achieve coherent population transfer between two states in a three-level atom by using two ac fields. It is based on the physics of Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP), but it is implemented with the constraint of a reduced control, namely one of the fields cannot be switched off. A combination of...

The implementation of a three-level Lambda System in artificial atoms would allow to perform advanced control tasks typical of quantum optics in the solid state realm, with photons in the $\mathrm{\mu m}$/mm range. However hardware constraints put an obstacle since protection from decoherence is often conflicting with efficient coupling to external...

In many applications entanglement must be distributed through noisy communication channels that unavoidably degrade it. Entanglement cannot be generated by local operations and classical communication (LOCC), implying that once it has been distributed it is not possible to recreate it by LOCC. Recovery of entanglement by purely local control is how...

In this paper, we study how to preserve entanglement and nonlocality under dephasing produced by classical noise with large low-frequency components, such as 1/f noise, using dynamical decoupling techniques. We first show that quantifiers of entanglement and nonlocality satisfy a closed relation valid for two independent qubits locally coupled to a...

We show that any quantification of the bipartite entanglement of mixed states uniquely based on the density operator may lead to a paradoxical increase of entanglement under purely local operations. This apparent paradox is solved in the physical ensemble description of the system state by introducing the concept of "hidden" entanglement, which mea...

The efficiency of the future devices for quantum information processing is limited mostly by the finite decoherence rates of the individual qubits and quantum gates. Recently, substantial progress was achieved in enhancing the time within which a solid-state qubit demonstrates coherent dynamics. This progress is based mostly on a successful isolati...

Quantum computation has emerged in the past decades as a consequence of down-scaling of electronic devices to the mesoscopic regime and of advances in the ability of controlling and measuring microscopic quantum systems. Quantum computation has many interdisciplinary aspects, ranging from physics and chemistry to mathematics and computer science. I...

Controlling the dynamics of entanglement and preventing its disappearance are central requisites for any implementation of quantum information processing. Solid state qubits are frequently affected by random telegraph noise due to bistable impurities of different nature coupled to the device. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to achieve...

It is known that entanglement dynamics of two noninteracting qubits, locally subjected to classical environments, may exhibit revivals. A simple explanation of this phenomenon may be provided by using the concept of hidden entanglement, which signals the presence of entanglement that may be recovered without the help of nonlocal operations. Here we...

Quantum Computation has emerged in the past decades as a consequence of down-scaling of electronic devices to the mesoscopic regime and of advances in the ability of controlling and measuring microscopic quantum systems. QC has many interdisciplinary aspects, ranging from physics and chemistry to mathematics and computer science. In these lecture n...

We study information transmission over a fully correlated amplitude damping channel acting on two qubits. We derive the single-shot classical channel capacity and show that entanglement is needed to achieve the channel best performance. We discuss the degradability properties of the channel and evaluate the quantum capacity for any value of the noi...

The implementation of a Lambda scheme in superconducting artificial atoms could allow detec- tion of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) and other quantum manipulations in the microwave regime. However symmetries which on one hand protect the system against decoherence, yield selection rules which may cancel coupling to the pump external dr...

The transient dynamics of a periodically driven metastable quantum system, interacting with a heat bath, is investigated. The time evolution of the populations, within the framework of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and in the discrete variable representation, is analyzed by varying the parameters of the external driving. The results displ...

Entanglement dynamics of two noninteracting qubits, locally affected by random telegraph noise at pure dephasing, exhibits revivals. These revivals are not due to the action of any nonlocal operation, thus their occurrence may appear paradoxical since entanglement is by definition a nonlocal resource. We show that a simple explanation of this pheno...

We analyze local spin-echo procedures to protect entanglement between two non-interacting qubits, each subject to pure-dephasing random telegraph noise. For superconducting qubits this simple model captures characteristic features of the effect of bistable impurities coupled to the device. An analytic expression for the entanglement dynamics is rep...

We study the effect of low-frequency noise in ac-driven two- or many-level coherent nanodevices. Fluctuations in the properties of the device are translated into equivalent fluctuations of the driving fields. The impact on Rabi oscillations can be modulated with the detuning and minimized at resonance. In three-level atoms slow noise produces quali...

We study spontaneous emission processes of two capacitively coupled superconducting qubits embedded in transmission-line resonators in a circuit-quantum electrodynamics architecture. We find that under proper conditions of the entanglement generating operation, a Purcell protection from spontaneous emission occurs. We discuss the dependence of this...

We consider the transfer of classical and quantum information through a memory amplitude damping channel. Such a quantum channel is modeled as a damped harmonic oscillator, the interaction between the information carriers - a train of qubits - and the oscillator being of the Jaynes-Cummings kind. We prove that this memory channel is forgetful, so t...

In this work we analyze the transient dynamics of three different classical and quantum systems. First, we consider a classical Brownian particle moving in an asymmetric bistable potential, subject to a multiplicative and additive noise source. We investigate the role of these two noise sources on the life time of the metastable state. A nonmonoton...

Relaxation phenomena in three different classical and quantum systems are investigated. First, the role of multiplicative and additive noise in a classical metastable system is analyzed. The mean lifetime of the metastable state shows a nonmonotonic behavior with a maximum as a function of both the additive and multiplicative noise intensities. In...

We study the entanglement dynamics for two independent superconducting qubits, each affected by a bistable impurity generating random telegraph noise (RTN) at pure dephasing. The relevant parameter is the ratio g between the qubit–RTN coupling strength and the RTN switching rate, which captures the physics of the crossover between Markovian and non...

A particular superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)qubit, indicated as double SQUID qubit, can be manipulated by rapidly modifying its potential with the application of fast flux pulses. In this system we observe coherent oscillations exhibiting non-exponential decay, indicating a non trivial decoherence mechanism. Moreover, by tuning...

Recent experiments have demonstrated coherent phenomena in three-level systems based on superconducting nanocircuits. This opens the possibility to detect Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) in artificial atoms. Low-fequency noise (often 1/f) is one of the main sources of decoherence in these systems, and we study its effect on the transfer...

We discuss the effect of low-frequency noise on interacting superconducting qubits in a fixed coupling scheme. By properly choosing operating conditions, within the adiabatic framework the systems develops two decoupled subspaces. The subspace where a SWAP operation takes place turns out to be resilient to low frequency fluctuations. The possibilit...

Quantum memory channels are attracting growing interest, motivated by both realistic possibilities of transferring information by means of quantum hardware and inadequacies of the memoryless approximation. In fact, subsequent uses of the same quantum transmission resource can be significantly correlated. In this paper we review two Hamiltonian mode...

The controlled generation of entangled states of two quantum bits is a fundamental step toward the implementation of a quantum information processor. In nano-devices this operation is counteracted by the solid-state environment, characterized by a broadband and non-monotonic power spectrum, often 1/f at low frequencies. For single-qubit gates, inco...

We study the decay of quantum nonlocality, identified by the violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell inequality, for two noninteracting Josephson qubits subject to independent baths with broadband spectra typical of solid state nanodevices. The bath noise can be separated in an adiabatic (low-frequency) and in a quantum (high-freque...

In this work we analyze the dynamics of a quantum particle subject to an asymmetric bistable potential and interacting with a thermal reservoir. We obtain the time evolution of the population distributions in both energy and position eigenstates of the particle, for different values of the coupling strength with the thermal bath. The calculation is...

We study entanglement degradation of two noninteracting qubits subject to independent baths with broadband spectra typical of solid-state nanodevices. We obtain the analytic form of the concurrence in the presence of adiabatic noise for classes of entangled initial states presently achievable in experiments. We find that adiabatic (low-frequency) n...

Photoassisted transport through a mesoscopic conductor occurs when an oscillatory (ac) voltage is superposed to the constant (dc) bias which is imposed on this conductor. Of particular interest is the photoassisted shot noise, which has been investigated theoretically and experimentally for several types of samples. For dc-biased conductors, a dete...

We present a general route to reduce inhomogeneous broadening in nanodevices due to 1/f noise. We apply this method to a universal two-qubit gate and demonstrate that for selected optimal couplings, a high-efficient gate can be implemented even in the presence of 1/f noise. Entanglement degradation due to interplay of 1/f and quantum noise is quant...

We electrically and optically tested both single pixels and complete arrays of Silicon Photomultipliers, from 5x5 to 64x64, fabricated by STMicroelectronics. Single cell devices operation was studied as a function of the temperature from -25 degrees C to 65 degrees C varying the voltage over breakdown, from 5% up to 20% of the breakdown voltage. Op...

Single photon Si detectors were fabricated by STMicroelectronics and fully characterized in standard operation conditions and after irradiations. Both single cells and arrays, of dimensions ranging from 5x5 up to 64x64, were electrically tested. The devices operation was studied as a function of the temperature from -25 degrees C to 65 degrees C va...

We study the effect of coupling to an environment a particle whose dynamics is governed by the Weyl equation. This model describes chiral quasi-particles in graphene in the presence of noise. Using an exact mapping of the Hamiltonian onto a conditional spin–boson model we study the dynamics of wave-packets, and how the phenomena of spin-separation...

We consider a solid-state two-qubit gate subject to relaxation processes originated by transverse and longitudinal fluctuations of the single-qubit Hamiltonians. We model each noise component as a bosonic bath characterized by a specific power spectrum. We specialize our analysis to a gate implemented by Josephson qubits in a fixed coupling scheme....

We study entanglement degradation of two non-interacting qubits subject to independent baths with broadband spectra typical of solid state nanodevices. We obtain the analytic form of the concurrence in the presence of adiabatic noise for classes of entangled initial states presently achievable in experiments. We find that adiabatic (low frequency)...

Broadband noise represents a severe limitation towards the implementation of a solid-state quantum information processor. Considering common spectral forms, we propose a classification of noise sources based on the effects produced instead of on their microscopic origin. We illustrate a multi-stage approach to broadband noise which systematically i...

We discuss the performance of two qubits with a transverse coupling affected by transverse low-frequency noise. In the adiabatic approximation, the system dynamics develops separately in two subspaces, with differing behaviors depending on the qubits' coupling strength and the noise amplitude. In one subspace, an optimal value of coupling is found,...

We consider the transfer of quantum information down a single-mode quantum transmission line. Such a quantum channel is modeled as a damped harmonic oscillator, the interaction between the information carriers -a train of N qubits- and the oscillator being of the Jaynes-Cummings kind. Memory effects appear if the state of the oscillator is not rese...

We study a dephasing channel with memory, described by a Hamiltonian model in which the system-environment interaction is described by a stochastic process. We propose a useful way to describe the channel uses correlations. Moreover, we give a general expression for the coherences decay factors as a function of the number of channel uses and of the...

We study the effects of correlated low frequency noise sources acting on a two qubit gate in a fixed coupling scheme. A phenomenological model for the spatial and cross-talk correlations is introduced. The decoherence inside the SWAP subspace is analysed by combining analytic results based on the adiabatic approximation and numerical simulations. R...

We study a dephasing channel with memory, described by a Hamiltonian model in which the system-environment interaction is described by a stochastic process. We propose a useful way to describe the channel uses correlations. Moreover, we give a general expression for the coherences decay factors as a function of the number of channel uses and of the...

The rapid experimental progress in the field of superconducting nanocircuits gives rise to an increasing quest for advanced quantum-control techniques for these macroscopically coherent systems. Here we demonstrate theoretically that stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) should be possible with the quantronium setup of a Cooper-pair box. The...

Low-frequency noise, often with 1/f spectrum, has been recognized as the main mechanism of decoherence in present-day solid state coherent nanodevices. The responsible degrees of freedom are almost static during the coherent time evolution of the device leading to effects analogous to inhomogeneous broadening in NMR. Here we present a characterizat...

We study a dephasing channel with memory, modelled by a multimode environment of oscillators. Focusing on the case of two channel uses, we show that memory effects can enhance the amount of coherent quantum information transmitted down the channel. We also show the Kraus representation for two channel uses. Finally, we propose a coding-decoding sch...

We study a dephasing channel with memory, modelled by a Markov chain. We show that even weak memory effects have a detrimental impact on the performance of quantum error correcting schemes designed for uncorrelated errors. We also discuss an alternative scheme that takes advantage of memory effects to protect quantum information.

The realization of coupled qubit setups is a fundamental step towards implementation of universal quantum computing architectures. Solid state nano- devices, despite being very promising from the point of view of scalability and integration, strongly suffer from various noise sources. Particular detrimental role is played by low-frequency noise com...

The rapid experimental progress in the field of superconducting nanocircuits gives rise to an increasing quest for advanced quantum-control techniques for these macroscopically coherent systems. Here we demonstrate theoretically that stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), a well-established method in quantum optics, should be possible with th...

The variety of noise sources typical of the solid state represents the main limitation toward the realization of controllable and reliable quantum nanocircuits, as those allowing quantum computation. Such ``structured environments'' are characterized by a non-monotonous noise spectrum sometimes showing resonances at selected frequencies. Here we fo...

We show that the amount of coherent quantum information that can be reliably transmitted down a dephasing channel with memory is maximized by separable input states. In particular, we model the channel as a Markov chain or a multimode environment of oscillators. While in the first model the maximization is achieved for the maximally mixed input sta...

In this letter we consider Andreev tunnelling between a normal metal and a one-dimensional Josephson junction array with finite-range Coulomb energy. The I-V characteristics strongly deviate from the classical linear Andreev current. We show that the non-linear conductance possesses interesting scaling behaviour when the chain undergoes a T = 0 sup...