Funding
EMP is funded through the Horizon2020 programme of the European Commission.
Selected Publications

On the existence of an independent phonon bath in a quantum device

L.M.A. Pascal, A. Fay, C.B. Winkelmann, H. Courtois

At low temperatures, the thermal wavelength of acoustic phonons in a metallic thin film on a substrate can widely exceed the film thickness. It is thus generally believed that a mesoscopic device operating at low temperature does not carry an individual phonon population. In this work, we provide direct experimental evidence for the thermal decoupling of phonons in a mesoscopic quantum device from its substrate phonon heat bath at a sub-Kelvin temperature. A simple heat balance model assuming an independent phonon bath following the usual electron-phonon and Kapitza coupling laws can account for all experimental observations.


Physical Review B 88 ,100502 (2013)

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.88.100502