Kondo-free quantum mirage: mechanism and manipulation

Quantum mirage is a fascinating phenomenon in fundamental physics. Landmark experiment on quantum mirage reveals novel information transport at the atomic scale and exhibits great potentials for remotely probing atoms or molecules with minimized perturbation. Previous experimental investigations are Kondo effect based and quantum mirages only appear near Fermi energy. This strongly limits the exploration of the mechanism and potential application. Here we demonstrate a Kondo-free quantum mirage, which can operate in a wide energy range beyond Fermi energy. Together with an analytical model, our systematic investigations identify that quantum mirage is the result of quantum interference of the onsite electronic states with those scattered by the adatom at the focus of elliptical quantum corrals, where two kinds of scattering paths are of critical importance. Moreover, we also demonstrate the manipulation of quantum mirage with pseudo logic operations, such as NOT, FANOUT and OR gates.