A momentum detector for nanoelectromechanical systems
Bjoern Trauzettel (Universität Basel)
08.11.2007 at 17:00
We propose a way to measure the momentum p of a nanomechanical oscillator. The p-detector is based on two tunnel junctions in a Aharonov-Bohm-type setup. In this setup, one of the tunneling amplitudes depends on the motion of the oscillator, the other one not. Although the coupling between the detector and the oscillator is assumed to be linear in the position x of the oscillator, it turns out that the finite-frequency noise output of the detector will in general contain a term proportional to the momentum spectrum of the oscillator. This is a true quantum phenomenon, which can be realized in practice if the phase of the tunneling amplitude of the detector is tuned by the Aharonov-Bohm flux to a p-sensitive value.
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