Transport and manipulation of electronic and magnetic objects

SAWs can efficiently transport charge carriers in semiconductor nanostructures such as quantum wells and quantum wires.

Device concepts are considered that take advantage of the unique features of acoustic transport. One of these concepts ist the acousto-electric single-photon detector (ACDET). Here, electrons and holes excited through the absorption of the incoming photons are transported by a SAW to small charge collecting areas, where they are detected with single-charge sensitivity by radio-frequency single-electron transistors (SETs). One of the expected properties of the ACDET concept is the ability to discriminate the number of photons in a light pulse - an important feature for quantum information protocols.

Far off of any quick device concept, the interaction of acoustic waves with magnetic flux quanta (vortices) is studied.  After proving the feasibility of sound-induced vortex transport, the underlying interaction mechanism is studied in detail.