Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena (b. 1993) is an early stage condensed matter physics researcher. He received his PhD in Physics from the Universidad de Chile in the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (FCFM) in Santiago, Chile under supervision of Prof. Dr. Luis E. F. Foa Torres in 2021.
His PhD research focused on the interplay of driven systems and topological behavior within two dimensional quantum systems. Most of his research interests are related to the development of solid-state devices that might be useful for electronics and to the design of quantum computing capable devices.
I. Education
(2012/03 - 2016/11) - Universidad de Chile, FCFM, Santiago, Chile
Bachelor in physics.
(2017/03 - 2021/12) - Universidad de Chile, FCFM, Santiago, Chile
(2015/12 - 2016/01) - Research work, DFI-FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Title : Renormalization of density fluctuations on disordered media
Introductory research work for undergraduate students. Determination of the behavior of density
waves in granular media. Numerical solution to stochastic partial differential equations which define its dynamics.
PI : Rodrigo Soto and Néstor Sepúlveda.
(2016/08 - 2016/12) - Research work, DFI-FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Title : Topological insulators and new phases induced by light
Introductory research work for undergraduate students. Introduction to the main features of Floquet topological insulators in the case of irradiated graphene. Numerical study of spectral properties of Floquet topological insulators.
PI : Luis Foa Torres.
(2020/09 - 2020/12) - Doctoral Internship, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
International internship for national PhD candidates sponsored by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarollo (ANID, Chile). Research work studying quantum walks and its topological features and properties of quantum transport related to Floquet topological phases. Numerical studies of spectral properties of higher Chern number quantum walks and exclusive topological phenomena of driven systems.
PI : János K. Asbóth
(2022/02 - 2026/08) - Postdoctoral Researcher, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Grenoble, France
Design of semiconducting spin qubits. Electrostatic design and semiconductors theory is applied to determine different figures of merit: Rabi frequency, quality factors, and fidelities.
PI: Yann-Michel Niquet
III. Publications
Publications where I have contributed
2019
Phys. Rev. B
Topological signatures in quantum transport in anomalous Floquet-Anderson insulators
Topological states require the presence of extended bulk states, as usually found in the picture of energy bands and topological states bridging the bulk gaps. But in driven systems this can be circumvented, and one can get topological states coexisting with fully localized bulk states, as in the case of the anomalous Floquet-Anderson insulator. Here, we show the fingerprints of this peculiar topological phase in the transport properties and their dependence on the disorder strength, geometrical configuration (two-terminal and multiterminal setups), and details of the driving protocol.
@article{rodriguez-mena_topological_2019,abbr={Phys. Rev. B},title={Topological signatures in quantum transport in anomalous {Floquet}-{Anderson} insulators},volume={100},url={https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.195429},html={https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.195429},doi={10.1103/PhysRevB.100.195429},optnumber={19},urldate={2021-10-03},journal={Physical Review B},author={Rodríguez-Mena, Esteban A. and Foa Torres, Luis E. F.},month=nov,year={2019},pages={195429},arxiv={1909.05957},bibtex_show={true}}
2021
Nano Lett.
Spin-Polarized Tunable Photocurrents
Matías Berdakin*; Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena*; Luis E. F Foa Torres; *Contributed equally.
Harnessing the unique features of topological materials for the development of a new generation of topological based devices is a challenge of paramount importance. Using Floquet scattering theory combined with atomistic models we study the interplay among laser illumination, spin, and topology in a two-dimensional material with spin–orbit coupling. Starting from a topological phase, we show how laser illumination can selectively disrupt the topological edge states depending on their spin. This is manifested by the generation of pure spin photocurrents and spin-polarized charge photocurrents under linearly and circularly polarized laser illumination, respectively. Our results open a path for the generation and control of spin-polarized photocurrents.
@article{berdakin_spin-polarized_2021,abbr={Nano Lett.},title={Spin-{Polarized} {Tunable} {Photocurrents}},volume={21},issn={1530-6984},url={https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00420},html={https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00420},doi={10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00420},number={7},urldate={2021-10-04},journal={Nano Letters},author={Berdakin${*}$, Matías and Rodríguez-Mena${*}$, Esteban A. and Foa Torres, Luis E. F and equally., ${*}$Contributed},month=apr,year={2021},pages={3177},arxiv={2010.11883},bibtex_show={true}}
2022
Phys. Rev. B
Hole spin manipulation in inhomogeneous and nonseparable electric fields
Biel Martinez*; José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel*; Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena*; Yann-Michel Niquet; *Contributed equally.
The usual models for electrical spin manipulation in semiconductor quantum dots assume that the confinement potential is separable in the three spatial dimensions and that the AC drive field is homogeneous. However, the electric field induced by the gates in quantum dot devices is not fully separable and displays significant inhomogeneities. Here, we address the electrical manipulation of hole spins in semiconductor heterostructures subject to inhomogeneous vertical electric fields and/or in-plane AC electric fields. We consider Ge quantum dots electrically confined in a Ge/GeSi quantum well as an illustration. We show that the lack of separability between the vertical and in-plane motions of the hole gives rise to an additional spin-orbit coupling mechanism (beyond the usual linear and cubic in momentum Rashba terms) that modulates the principal axes of the hole gyromagnetic g-matrix. This non-separability mechanism can be of the same order of magnitude as Rashba-type interactions, and enables spin manipulation when the magnetic field is applied in the plane of the heterostructure even when the dot is symmetric (disk-shaped). More generally, we show that Rabi oscillations in strongly patterned electric fields harness a variety of g-factor modulations. We discuss the implications for the design, modeling and understanding of hole spin qubit devices.
2023
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Hole spin driving by strain-induced spin-orbit interactions
José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel; Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena; Biel Martinez; Yann-Michel Niquet
Hole spins in semiconductor quantum dots can be efficiently manipulated with radio-frequency electric fields owing to the strong spin-orbit interactions in the valence bands. Here we show that the motion of the dot in inhomogeneous strain fields gives rise to linear Rashba spin-orbit interactions (with spatially dependent spin-orbit lengths) and \gt-factor modulations that allow for fast Rabi oscillations. Such inhomogeneous strains build up spontaneously in \YMNthe devices due to process and cool down stress. We discuss spin qubits in Ge/GeSi heterostructures as an illustration. We highlight that Rabi frequencies can be enhanced by one order of magnitude by shear strain gradients as small as 3\times 10^-6 nm^-1 within the dots. This underlines that spin in solids can be very sensitive to strains and opens the way for strain engineering in hole spin devices for quantum information and spintronics.
@article{strains_2022,abbr={Phys. Rev. Lett.},title={Hole spin driving by strain-induced spin-orbit interactions},url={https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.097002},html={https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.097002},journal={Phys. Rev. Lett.},doi={https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.097002},author={Abadillo-Uriel, José Carlos and Rodríguez-Mena, Esteban A. and Martinez, Biel and Niquet, Yann-Michel},publisher={American Physical Society},year={2023},month=sep,volume={131},issue={9},pages={097002},arxiv={2212.03691},bibtex_show={true}}
Phys. Rev. B
Linear-in-momentum spin orbit interactions in planar Ge/GeSi heterostructures and spin qubits
Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena; José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel; Gaëtan Veste; Biel Martinez; Jing Li; Benoît Sklénard; Yann-Michel Niquet
We investigate the existence of linear-in-momentum spin-orbit interactions in the valence band of Ge/GeSi heterostructures using an atomistic tight-binding method. We show that symmetry breaking at the Ge/GeSi interfaces gives rise to a linear Dresselhaus-type interaction for heavy-holes. This interaction results from the heavy-hole/light-hole mixings induced by the interfaces and can be captured by a suitable correction to the minimal Luttinger-Kohn, four bands kp Hamiltonian. It is dependent on the steepness of the Ge/GeSi interfaces, and is suppressed if interdiffusion is strong enough. Besides the Dresselhaus interaction, the Ge/GeSi interfaces also make a contribution to the in-plane gyromagnetic g-factors of the holes. The tight-binding calculations also highlight the existence of a small linear Rashba interaction resulting from the couplings between the heavy-hole/light-hole manifold and the conduction band enabled by the low structural symmetry of Ge/GeSi heterostructures. These interactions can be leveraged to drive the hole spin. The linear Dresselhaus interaction may, in particular, dominate the physics of the devices for out-of-plane magnetic fields. When the magnetic field lies in-plane, it is, however, usually far less efficient than the g-tensor modulation mechanisms arising from the motion of the dot in non-separable, inhomogeneous electric fields and strains.
@article{linearinmomentum_2023,abbr={Phys. Rev. B},title={Linear-in-momentum spin orbit interactions in planar Ge/GeSi heterostructures and spin qubits},url={https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.205416},html={https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.205416},journal={Phys. Rev. B},doi={10.1103/PhysRevB.108.205416},author={Rodríguez-Mena, Esteban A. and Abadillo-Uriel, José Carlos and Veste, Gaëtan and Martinez, Biel and Li, Jing and Sklénard, Benoît and Niquet, Yann-Michel},keywords={Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), FOS: Physical sciences, FOS: Physical sciences},publisher={American Physical Society},year={2023},month=nov,arxiv={2307.10007},bibtex_show={true}}
2024
Phys. Rev. B
Geometry of the dephasing sweet spots of spin-orbit qubits
Lorenzo Mauro*; Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena*; Marion Bassi; Vivien Schmitt; Yann-Michel Niquet; *Contributed equally.
The dephasing time of spin-orbit qubits is limited by the coupling with electrical and charge noise. However, there may exist "dephasing sweet spots" where the qubit decouples (to first order) from the noise so that the dephasing time reaches a maximum. Here we discuss the nature of the dephasing sweet spots of a spin-orbit qubit electrically coupled to some fluctuator. We characterize the Zeeman energy E_\mathrmZ of this qubit by the tensor G such that E_\mathrmZ=\mu_B\sqrt\vecB^\mathrmTG\vecB (with \mu_B the Bohr magneton and \vecB the magnetic field), and its response to the fluctuator by the derivative G^\prime of G with respect to the fluctuating field. The geometrical nature of the sweet spots on the unit sphere describing the magnetic field orientation depends on the sign of the eigenvalues of G^\prime. We show that sweet spots usually draw lines on this sphere. We then discuss how to characterize the electrical susceptibility of a spin-orbit qubit with test modulations on the gates. We apply these considerations to a Ge/GeSi spin qubit heterostructure, and discuss the prospects for the engineering of sweet spots.
@article{mauro2024geometry,abbr={Phys. Rev. B},title={Geometry of the dephasing sweet spots of spin-orbit qubits},url={https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.155406},html={https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.155406},journal={Phys. Rev. B},doi={https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.155406},author={Mauro${*}$, Lorenzo and Rodríguez-Mena${*}$, Esteban A. and Bassi, Marion and Schmitt, Vivien and Niquet, Yann-Michel and equally., *Contributed},publisher={American Physical Society},year={2024},volume={109},issue={15},month=apr,arxiv={2312.09840},bibtex_show={true}}
arXiv
Unifying Floquet theory of longitudinal and dispersive readout
Alessandro Chessari; Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena; José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel; Victor Champain; Simon Zihlmann; Romain Maurand; Yann-Michel Niquet; Michele Filippone
We devise a Floquet theory of longitudinal and dispersive readout in circuit QED. By studying qubits coupled to cavity photons and driven at the resonance frequency of the cavity ωr, we establish a universal connection between the qubit AC Stark shift and the longitudinal and dispersive coupling to photons. We find that the longitudinal coupling g∥ is controlled by the slope of the AC Stark shift as function of the driving strength Aq, while the dispersive shift χ depends on its curvature. The two quantities become proportional to each other in the weak drive limit (Aq→0). Our approach unifies the adiabatic limit (ωr→0) – where g∥ is generated by the static spectrum curvature (or quantum capacitance) – with the diabatic one, where the static spectrum plays no role. We derive analytical results supported by exact numerical simulations. We apply them to superconducting and spin-hybrid cQED systems, showcasing the flexibility of faster-than-dispersive longitudinal readout.
@article{chessari2024unifying,abbr={arXiv},title={Unifying Floquet theory of longitudinal and dispersive readout},url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.03417},html={https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.03417},journal={arXiv},doi={https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.03417},author={Chessari, Alessandro and Rodríguez-Mena, Esteban A. and Abadillo-Uriel, José Carlos and Champain, Victor and Zihlmann, Simon and Maurand, Romain and Niquet, Yann-Michel and Filippone, Michele},keywords={Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), FOS: Physical sciences, FOS: Physical sciences},publisher={arXiv},year={2024},month=jul,arxiv={2407.03417},bibtex_show={true}}
arXiv
Strain engineering in Ge/GeSi spin qubits heterostructures
Lorenzo Mauro; Esteban A. Rodríguez-Mena; Biel Martinez; Yann-Michel Niquet
The heavy-holes in Ge/GeSi heterostructures show highly anisotropic gyromagnetic response with in-plane g-factors g∗x,y≲0.3 and out-of-plane g-factor g∗z≳10. As a consequence, Rabi hot spots and dephasing sweet lines are extremely sharp and call for a careful alignment of the magnetic field in Ge spin qubit devices. We investigate how the g-factors can be engineered by strains. We show that uniaxial strains can raise in-plane g-factors above unity while leaving g∗z essentially constant. We discuss how the etching of an elongated mesa in a strained buffer can actually induce uniaxial (but inhomogeneous) strains in the heterostructure. This broadens the operational magnetic field range and enables spin manipulation by shuttling holes between neighboring dots with different g-factors.
@article{mauro2024strainengineering,abbr={arXiv},title={Strain engineering in Ge/GeSi spin qubits heterostructures},url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.19854},html={https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.19854},journal={arXiv},doi={https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.19854},author={Mauro, Lorenzo and Rodríguez-Mena, Esteban A. and Martinez, Biel and Niquet, Yann-Michel},keywords={Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), FOS: Physical sciences, FOS: Physical sciences},publisher={arXiv},year={2024},month=jul,arxiv={2407.19854},bibtex_show={true}}
IV. Works presented
Some of these presentations might include supplemental material.
(2016/01) - Renormalization of Density Fluctuations on Disordered Media
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Rodrigo Soto and Néstor Sepúlveda
Presented at Summer Research Tutoring 2016, DFI-FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
DFI, FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Poster contribution.
(2016/12) - Topological Insulators and New Phases Induced by Light
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at final session on introduction to scientific research course, DFI-FCFM Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Presented at V National Congress on Nanotechnology, Núcleo Milenio MultiMat, Pucón, Chile.
Poster contribution.
(2019/01) - Multiterminal Transport in Floquet-Anderson Topological Insulators
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented X School for Nanostructures, Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile.
Oral contribution.
(2019/06) - Topological Signatures in Quantum Transport in Anomalous Floquet-Anderson Insulators
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Theoretical Condensed Matter Seminars, DFI-FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Santiago,
Chile.
Oral contribution.
(2019/07) - Topological Signatures in Quantum Transport in Anomalous Floquet-Anderson Insulators
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Majorana Meetings, Institute of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and
Economics (BME), Budapest, Hungary.
Oral contribution.
(2019/10) - Topological Signatures in Quantum Transport in Anomalous Floquet-Anderson Insulators
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at 2D Materials : From Fundamentals to Spintronics, International Institute of Physics (IIP), Natal, Brazil.
Poster contribution.
(2019/10) - Topological States in Photonic Systems
Rocío González, Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at 2D Materials : From Fundamentals to Spintronics, International Institute of Physics (IIP), Natal, Brazil.
Poster contribution.
(2019/11) - Topological Signatures in Quantum Transport in Anomalous Floquet-Anderson Insulators
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at 9th International Conference on Low Dimensional Structures and Devices, Núcleo
Milenio MultiMat, Puerto Varas, Chile.
Poster contribution.
(2019/11) - Topological States in Photonic Systems
Rocío González, Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at 9th International Conference on Low Dimensional Structures and Devices, Núcleo
Milenio MultiMat, Puerto Varas, Chile.
Poster contribution.
(2020/08) - Harnessing light to control spin, charge and valley currents in two-dimensional honeycomb materials
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Matias Berdakin and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Theoretical Condensed Matter Seminars, DFI-FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Oral contribution.
(2020/09) - Harnessing light to control spin, charge and valley currents in two-dimensional honeycomb materials
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Matías Berdakin and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Modern Trends in Topological Quantum Matter, Joint Conference of the Condensed Matter Divisions, Royal Spanish Physical Society and European Physics Society.
Oral contribution.
(2021/11) - Spin-Polarized Tunable Photocurrents
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Matías Berdakin and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Virtual Graphene2021.
Oral contribution.
(2021/12) - Spin-Polarized Tunable Photocurrents
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Matías Berdakin and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Quantum2021 Conference, Phantoms Foundation, Bilbao, Spain.
Oral contribution.
(2022/01) - Spin-Polarized Tunable Photocurrents
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Matías Berdakin and L.E.F Foa Torres
Presented at Topological quantum matter: foundations and applications, held virtually by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.
(2022/11) - Hole spin manipulation in inhomogeneous and non-separable electric fields
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Biel Martinez, José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel and Yann-Michel Niquet.
Presented at Quantum Engineering, Fundamental Aspects to Applications (IQFA), held by the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CNRS, Université Paris Saclay).
(2023/03) - Hole spin manipulation in inhomogenous and non-separable electric fields
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Biel Martinez, José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel and Yann-Michel Niquet.
Presented at Americal Physical Society - March Meeting (Las Vegas, United States of America).
Oral contribution
(2023/04) - Hole spin manipulation in inhomogenous and non-separable electric fields
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Biel Martinez, José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel and Yann-Michel Niquet.
Presented at Hybrid Quantum Technologies Workshop and Germanium day, (Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Vienna, Austria).
Poster Contribution
(2023/07) - Manipulation of hole spin qubits in germanium heterostructures quantum dots
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Biel Martinez, José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel and Yann-Michel Niquet.
Invited talk for the Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience Group (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UBA), Barcelona, Spain).
(2024/05) - Geometry of the dephasing sweet spots of spin-orbit qubits
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Lorenzo Mauro, Marion Bassi, Vivien Schmitt and Yann-Michel Niquet.
Presented at 2nd Canada-France Quantum Alliance International Reseach Network (CAFQA), (CNRS and National Research Council Canada, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada)
Oral Contribution
(2024/08) - Geometry of the dephasing sweet spots of spin-orbit qubits
Esteban A. Rodríguez Mena, Marion Bassi, Boris Brun, Simon Zilhmann, Lorenzo Mauro, Jose Carlos Abadillo-Uriel, Benoit Bertrand, Heimanu Niebojewski, Romain Maurand, Yann-Michel Niquet, Xavier Xehl, Vivien Schmitt, Silvano de Franceschi
Presented at Silicon Quantum Electronics Workshop (SiQEW2024), (Davos, Switzerland)
Oral Contribution
VI. Schools
October (2017/10) - Quantum Fields, Condensed Matter and Information Theory, Balseiro Institute, CNEA San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.
One month intensive course on theoretical physics
Taught by argentinian scientists of Balseiro Institute to graduate students of Argentina and Latin America.
(2018/11) - V National Congress on Nanotechnology, Núcleo Milenio Multimat, Pucón, Chile.
Biannual scientific gathering of multidisciplinary topics related to nanotechnology.
(2019/01) - X School for Nanostructures, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile.
Biannual scientific gathering of physics topics related to nanotechnology.
(2019/02) Advanced School on Ubiquitous Quantum Physics : the New Quantum Revolution International Centre for Theoretical Physics Trieste, Italy.
Topics on quantum coherence and entanglement, quantum information and simulation and quantum devices and machines.
(2019/03) Workshop on Ubiquitous Quantum Physics : the New Quantum Revolution International Centre for Theoretical Physics Trieste, Italy.
Presentations on the last developments on quantum coherence and entanglement, quantum information and simulation and quantum devices and machines.
Observation: Attendance to virtual events without presentation had not been listed.
V. Teaching
You can check further information here. (Only available in spanish)
(2014/03 - 2016/12): Teaching Assistant, Physics Department, FCFM, Universidad de Chile
Taught in: classical mechanics, thermodynamics and electromagnetism.
(2017/03 - 2020/06): Teaching Assistant, Physics Department, FCFM, Universidad de Chile
Taught in: quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, classical mechanics, solid-state physics, and a course about graphene and topological insulators.