Energy dissipation is a fundamental process governing the dynamics of physical, chemical, and biological systems. It is also one of the main characteristics distinguishing quantum and classical phenomena. In condensed matter physics, in particular, scattering mechanisms, loss of quantum information, or breakdown of topological protection are deeply rooted in the intricate details of how and where the dissipation occurs. Despite its vital importance the microscopic behavior of a system is usually not formulated in terms of dissipation because the latter is not a readily measureable quantity on the microscale. Although nanoscale thermometry is gaining much recent interest [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] , the existing thermal imaging methods lack the necessary sensitivity and are unsuitable for low temperature operation required for study of quantum systems. Here we report a superconducting quantum interference nano-thermometer device with sub 50 nm diameter that resides at the apex of a sharp pipette and provides scanning cryogenic thermal sensing with four orders of magnitude improved thermal sensitivity of below 1 µK/Hz 1/2 . The non-contact non-invasive thermometry allows thermal imaging of very low nanoscale energy dissipation down to the fundamental Landauer limit [16][17][18] of 40 fW for continuous readout of a single qubit at 1 GHz at 4.2 K. These advances enable observation of dissipation due to single electron charging of individual quantum dots in carbon nanotubes and reveal a novel dissipation mechanism due to resonant localized states in hBN encapsulated graphene, opening the door to direct imaging of nanoscale dissipation processes in quantum matter. 2 Investigation of energy dissipation on the nanoscale is of major fundamental interest for a wide range of disciplines from biological processes, through chemical reactions, to energy-efficient computing [1][2][3][4][5] . Study of dissipation mechanisms in quantum systems is of particular importance because dissipation demolishes quantum information. In order to preserve a quantum state the dissipation has to be extremely weak and hence hard to measure. As a figure of merit for detection of low power dissipation in quantum systems 16 we consider an ideal qubit operating at a typical readout frequency of 1 GHz. Landauer's principle states the lowest bound on energy dissipation in an irreversible qubit operation to be 0 = B ln 2, where B is Boltzmann's constant and is the temperature 17,18 . At = 4.2 K, 0 = 410 -23 J, several orders of magnitude below 10 -19 J of dissipation per logical operation in present day superconducting electronics and 10 -15 J in CMOS devices 19,20 . Hence the power dissipated by an ideal qubit operating at a readout rate of = 1 GHz will be as low as = 0 = 40.2 fW. The resulting temperature increase of the qubit will depend on its size and the thermal properties of the substrate. For example, a 120 × 120 nm 2 device on a 1 µm thick SiO 2 /Si substrate dissipating 40 fW will heat up by about 3 µK (Fig. 1). Suc...

The ferromagnetic state of topological insulators showing quantum anomalous Hall effect is surprisingly superparamagnetic.

We investigate the magnetic field dependent thermopower, thermal conductivity, resistivity, and Hall effect in the heavy fermion metal YbRh2Si2. In contrast to reports on thermodynamic measurements, we find in total three transitions at high fields, rather than a single one at 10 T. Using the Mott formula together with renormalized band calculations, we identify Lifshitz transitions as their origin. The predictions of the calculations show that all experimental results rely on an interplay of a smooth suppression of the Kondo effect and the spin splitting of the flat hybridized bands.

Atomically sharp oxide heterostructures exhibit a range of novel physical phenomena that are absent in the parent compounds. A prominent example is the appearance of highly conducting and superconducting states at the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. Here we report an emergent phenomenon at the LaMnO3/SrTiO3 interface where an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator abruptly transforms into a nanoscale inhomogeneous magnetic state. Upon increasing the thickness of LaMnO3, our scanning nanoSQUID-on-tip microscopy shows spontaneous formation of isolated magnetic nanoislands, which display thermally activated moment reversals in response to an in-plane magnetic field. The observed superparamagnetic state manifests the emergence of thermodynamic electronic phase separation in which metallic ferromagnetic islands nucleate in an insulating antiferromagnetic matrix. We derive a model that captures the sharp onset and the thickness dependence of the magnetization. Our model suggests that a nearby superparamagnetic–ferromagnetic transition can be gate tuned, holding potential for applications in magnetic storage and spintronics.

In this Letter, we report resistivity, susceptibility, heat capacity, and upper critical field studies on a polycrystalline Rh17S15 sample which exhibits superconductivity below 5.4 K. Detailed studies suggest that the superconductivity in this compound arises from strongly correlated charge carriers presumably due to the high density of states of Rh d bands at the Fermi level. Moreover, the Hall coefficient shows a sign change and increases at low temperature before the sample becomes a superconductor below 5.4 K.