What is recorded here?
Lafarge, Joyez and colleagues used Coulomb-blockade electrometry to measure how electron-number parity changes the free energy of a small superconducting island. In one device, unequal widths of successive charge steps gave the temperature-dependent cost of an unpaired electron. A later device with a larger superconducting gap relative to its charging energy showed charge steps of two electrons at low temperature and field; increasing either restored intermediate or single-electron steps.
Source-linked catalogue note. A detailed explanatory guide has not yet been prepared for this entry.
Scientific scope
The two experiments used different samples and charging regimes. Two-electron periodicity alone does not establish two-electron charge quantization. The inference relies on calibrated mean-charge measurements, weak tunnelling and equilibrium models; low-temperature deviations and a fitted mean-free-path discrepancy retain their source-level uncertainty. These observations do not demonstrate an operating Cooper-pair pump, a coherent qubit or universal parity protection. The cited manuscripts are reproduced in a 1993 thesis; their wording may differ from the journal versions.
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People and systems
P. Lafarge; P. Joyez; D. Esteve; C. Urbina; M. H. Devoret
These are the listed authors of the cited contribution sources. Paper authorship does not quantify individual effort. An incomplete list is explicitly marked; same names are not automatically merged.
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English catalogue narrative
Electron parity controls charge addition to a superconducting island
Lafarge, Joyez and colleagues used Coulomb-blockade electrometry to measure how electron-number parity changes the free energy of a small superconducting island. In one device, unequal widths of successive charge steps gave the temperature-dependent cost of an unpaired electron. A later device with a larger superconducting gap relative to its charging energy showed charge steps of two electrons at low temperature and field; increasing either restored intermediate or single-electron steps.
Scientific scope
The two experiments used different samples and charging regimes. Two-electron periodicity alone does not establish two-electron charge quantization. The inference relies on calibrated mean-charge measurements, weak tunnelling and equilibrium models; low-temperature deviations and a fitted mean-free-path discrepancy retain their source-level uncertainty. These observations do not demonstrate an operating Cooper-pair pump, a coherent qubit or universal parity protection. The cited manuscripts are reproduced in a 1993 thesis; their wording may differ from the journal versions.
Reading status
This is a source-linked WRS catalogue note. A full explanatory guide and independent scientific reconstruction have not been completed for this entry. Read the identified original work for its complete narrative and arguments.
People and systems
P. Lafarge; P. Joyez; D. Esteve; C. Urbina; M. H. Devoret
These are the listed authors of the cited contribution sources. Paper authorship does not quantify individual effort. An incomplete list is explicitly marked; same names are not automatically merged.