Tunable multi-electron Pancharatnam phase in intensity interferometry

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to generate and detect tunable multi-electron Pancharatnam phases using quantum spin Hall edge states and spin polarized electrodes, revealing a multi-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect in spin space.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental setup combining QSHE edge states and SPEs to realize and observe multi-electron Pancharatnam phases, which was previously unachievable.

Findings

Demonstrates generation of multi-electron Pancharatnam phase.

Shows robustness of interference pattern against orbital dephasing.

Reveals a multi-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect in spin space.

Abstract

Pancharatnam phase was discovered in the context of polarization optics in nineteen fifties. However, its full realization in quantum many-body systems still eludes us. This is primarily due to the fact that electron spin is not easily tunable. In the present proposal, we suggest that edge states of quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) in conjunction with spin polarized electrodes (SPE) provide us with a unique opportunity to explore the Pancharatnam phase. We demonstrate the possibility of generating and detecting the multi-electron version of this phase that can as well be interpreted as multi-particle Aharonov-Bohm (A-B) effect in spin space arising solely due to spin dynamics. We further show that our proposed set-up leads to a robust interference pattern which survives orbital dephasing.