Periodic source of energy-entangled electrons in helical states coupled to a BCS superconductor

Abstract

We propose a source of purely electronic energy-entangled states implemented in a solid-state system with potential applications in quantum information protocols based on electron flying qubits. The proposed device relies on the standard tools of Electron Quantum Optics (EQO) and exploits entanglement of the Cooper pairs of a BCS superconductor. The latter is coupled via an adjustable quantum point contact to two opposite spin polarized electron wave-guides, which are driven by trains of Lorentzian pulses. This specific choice for the drive is crucial to inject purely electronic entangled-states devoid of spurious electron-hole pairs. In the Andreev regime, a perturbative calculation in the tunnel coupling confirms that entangled electrons states (EES) are generated at the output of the normal side. We introduce a quantity related to charge current cross-correlations which allows one to verify experimentally the entangled nature of the emitted state.