Boundaries, disorder and noise in quantum-coherent systems

This thesis aims to understand how quantum-coherent phenomena in solids are affected by the presence of boundaries, disorder, and classical noise. First, we consider surface states in Dirac materials. We show that these systems can host ballistically propagating modes that are immune, to a large extent, to disorder at boundaries. Furthermore, in contrast to the conventional Tamm-Shockley states, Dirac surface states exist for generic boundaries, regardless of the boundary conditions specifics. Because of the robustness of surface states and their insensitivity to disorder, their contribution to transport dominates over the bulk contribution when the number of carriers is low enough. Our analysis was motivated by recent experimental observation pointing to existence of surface states propagating ballistically along imperfect boundaries. Second, we study quantum-coherent transport in the presence of strong classical noise.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Shtanko, Oles.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Seth Lloyd.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124280

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/124280