Charge sensing in enhancement mode double-top-gated metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dots
E. P. Nordberg, H. L. Stalford, R. Young, G. A. Ten Eyck, K. Eng, L. A. Tracy, K. D. Childs, J. R. Wendt, R. K. Grubbs, J. Stevens, M. P. Lilly, M. A. Eriksson, M. S. Carroll
Laterally coupled charge sensing of quantum dots is highly desirable, because it enables measurement even when conduction through the quantum dot itself is suppressed. In this work, we demonstrate such charge sensing in a double top gated MOS system. The current through a point contact constriction integrated near a quantum dot shows sharp 2% changes corresponding to charge transitions between the dot and a nearby lead. We extract the coupling capacitance between the charge sensor and the quantum dot, and we show that it agrees well with a 3D capacitance model of the integrated sensor and quantum dot system.
We report on the resonant emission in coherently-driven single semiconductor quantum dots. We demonstrate that an ultra-weak non-resonant laser acts as an optical gate for the quantum dot resonant response. We show that the gate laser suppresses Coulomb blockade at the origin of a resonant emission quenching, and that the optically-gated quantum dots systematically behave as ideal two-level systems in both regimes of coherent and incoherent resonant emission.
A dynamical nuclear polarization scheme is studied in gated double dots. We demonstrate that a small polarization ($\sim 0.5%$) is sufficient to enhance the singlet decay time by two orders of magnitude. This enhancement is attributed to an equilibration process between the nuclear reservoirs in the two dots accompanied by reduced fluctuations in the Overhauser fields, that are mediated by the electron-nuclear spin hyperfine interaction.
Theoretical and numerical calculations of two-phonon processes on gated lateral semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are outlined. A heterostructure made with two laterally coupled QDs, in the presence of an external magnetic field, has been employed in order to study the electron scattering rate due to two-phonon processes. The formalism is based on the acoustic phonon modes via the unscreened deformation potential and the piezoelectric interaction whenever the crystal lattice lacks a center of inversion symmetry. The rates are calculated by using second order perturbation theory. The strong depe…
Elastic strain changes the energies of the conduction band in a semiconductor, which will affect transport through a semiconductor nanostructure. We show that the typical strains in a semiconductor nanostructure from metal gates are large enough to create strain-induced quantum dots (QDs). We simulate a commonly used QD device architecture, metal gates on bulk silicon, and show the formation of strain-induced QDs. The strain-induced QD can be eliminated by replacing the metal gates with poly-silicon gates. Thus strain can be as important as electrostatics to QD device operation operation.
We develop a microscopic and atomistic theory of electron spin-based qubits in gated quantum dots in a single layer of transition metal dichalcogenides. The qubits are identified with two degenerate locked spin and valley states in a gated quantum dot. The two-qubit states are accurately described using a multi-million atom tight-binding model solved in wavevector space. The spin-valley locking and strong spin-orbit coupling result in two degenerate states, one of the qubit states being spin-down located at the $+K$ valley of the Brillouin zone, and the other state located at the $-K$ valley w…
We report on the fabrication and characterization of quantum dot devices in a Schottky-gated silicon/silicon-germanium two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The dots are confined laterally inside an etch-defined channel, while their potential is modulated by an etch-defined 2DEG gate in the plane of the dot. For the first time in this material, Schottky top gates are used to define and tune the tunnel barriers of the dot. The leakage current from the gates is reduced by minimizing their active area. Further suppression of the leakage is achieved by increasing the etch depth of the channel. The …
We demonstrate top-gated field effect transistor made of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) monolayer (graphene) by dielectrophoresis. Raman spectrum of RGO flakes of typical size of 5μm x 5μm show a single 2D band at 2687 cm-1, characteristic of a single layer graphene. The two probe current - voltage measurements of RGO flakes, deposited in between the patterned electrodes with a gap of 2.5 μm using a.c. dielectrophoresis show ohmic behavior with a resistance of ~ 37kΩ. The temperature dependence of the resistance (R) of RGO measured between temperatures 305 K to 393 K yields temperature coefficie…
We present here results of atomistic theory of electrons confined by metallic gates in a single layer of transition metal dichalcogenides. The electronic states are described by the tight-binding model and computed using a computational box including up to million atoms with periodic boundary conditions and parabolic confining potential due to external gates embedded in it. With this methodology applied to MoS2, we find a twofold degenerate energy spectrum of electrons confined in the two non-equivalent K-valleys by the metallic gates as well as six-fold degenerate spectrum associated with Q-v…
We propose a model for the two-dimensional electron gas formed at the interface of oxide heterostructures that includes a Rashba spin-orbit coupling proportional to an electric field oriented perpendicularly to the interface. Taking into account the electron density dependence of this electric field confining the electron gas at the interface, we report the occurrence of a phase separation instability (signaled by a negative compressibility) for realistic values of the spin-orbit coupling and of the electronic band-structure parameters at zero temperature. We extend the analysis to finite temp…
Time-dependent electron transport through a quantum dot and double quantum dot systems in the presence of polychromatic external periodic quantum dot energy-level modulations is studied within the time evolution operator method for a tight-binding Hamiltonian. Analytical relations for the dc-current flowing through the system and the charge accumulated on a quantum dot are obtained for the zero-temperature limit. It is shown that in the presence of periodic perturbations the sideband peaks of the transmission are related to combination frequencies of the applied modulations. For a double quant…
Inspired by the dendritic integration and spiking operation of a biological neuron, flexible oxide-based neuron transistors gated by solid-state electrolyte films are fabricated on flexible plastic substrates for biochemical sensing applications. When a quasi-static dual-gate laterally synergic sensing mode is adopted, the neuron transistor sensor shows a high pH sensitivity of ~105 mV/pH, which is higher than the Nernst limit. Our results demonstrate that single-spike dynamic mode can remarkably improve the pH sensitivity, reduce response/recover time and power consumption. We also find that …
We propose a fast and accurate spin initialization method for a single electron trapped in an electrostatic quantum dot. The dot is created in a nanodevice composed of a catalytically grown indium antimonide (InSb) nanowire and nearby gates to which control voltages are applied. Initially we insert a single electron of arbitrary spin into the wire. Operations on spin are performed using the Rashba spin-orbit interaction induced by an electric field. First, a single pulse of voltages applied to lateral gates is used to split the electron wavepacket into two parts with opposite spin orientations…
Extremely long coherence times, excellent single-qubit gate fidelities and two-qubit logic have been demonstrated with silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor spin qubits, making it one of the leading platforms for quantum information processing. Despite this, a long-standing challenge in this system has been the demonstration of tunable tunnel coupling between single electrons. Here we overcome this hurdle with gate-defined quantum dots and show couplings that can be tuned on and off for quantum operations. We use charge sensing to discriminate between the (2,0) and (1,1) charge states of a double …
We present a theory of electronic properties of gated triangular graphene quantum dots with zigzag edges as a function of size and carrier density. We focus on electronic correlations, spin and geometrical effects using a combination of atomistic tight-binding, Hartree-Fock and configuration interaction methods (TB+HF+CI) including long range Coulomb interactions. The single particle energy spectrum of triangular dots with zigzag edges exhibits a degenerate shell at the Fermi level with a degeneracy N_{edge} proportional to the edge size. We determine the effect of the electron-electron intera…
Electric field effect in electronic double layer transistor (EDLT) configuration with ionic liquids as the dielectric materials is a powerful means of exploring various properties in different materials. Here we demonstrate the modulation of electrical transport properties and extremely high mobility of two-dimensional electron gas at LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ (LAO/STO) interface through ionic liquid-assisted electric field effect. By changing the gate voltages, the depletion of charge carrier and the resultant enhancement of electron mobility up to 19380 cm$^2$/Vs are realized, leading to quantum o…
We present measurements of silicon (Si) metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) nanostructures that are fabricated using a process that facilitates essentially arbitrary gate geometries. Stable Coulomb blockade behavior free from the effects of parasitic dot formation is exhibited in several MOS quantum dots with an open lateral quantum dot geometry. Decreases in mobility and increases in charge defect densities (i.e. interface traps and fixed oxide charge) are measured for critical process steps, and we correlate low disorder behavior with a quantitative defect density. This work provides quantitativ…
We replace the established aluminium gates for the formation of quantum dots in silicon with gates made from palladium. We study the morphology of both aluminium and palladium gates with transmission electron microscopy. The native aluminium oxide is found to be formed all around the aluminium gates, which could lead to the formation of unintentional dots. Therefore, we report on a novel fabrication route that replaces aluminium and its native oxide by palladium with atomic-layer-deposition-grown aluminium oxide. Using this approach, we show the formation of low-disorder gate-defined quantum d…
We present a computational LCHO-CI approach allowing for the simulation of exchange interactions in gated lateral quantum dot networks. The approach is based on single-particle states calculated using a linear combination of harmonic orbitals (LCHO) of each of the dots, and a configuration interaction (CI) approach to the interacting electron problem. The LCHO-CI method is applied to a network of three quantum dots with one electron spin per dot, and a Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian is derived. The manipulation of spin states of a three-spin molecule by applying bias to one of the dots is demonst…
Using a combination of continuous wave and time-resolved spectroscopy, we study the effects of interfacial conditions on the radiative lifetimes and photoluminescence intensities of colloidal CdTe/CdS quantum dots (QDs) embedded in a three-dimensional nanostructured silicon (NSi) matrix. The NSi matrix was thermally oxidized under different conditions to change the interfacial oxide thickness. QDs embedded in a NSi matrix with ~0.5 nm of interfacial oxide exhibited reduced photoluminescence intensity and nearly five times shorter radiative lifetimes (~16 ns) compared to QDs immobilized within …
We define two laterally gated small quantum dots (~ 15 electrons) in an Aharonov-Bohm geometry in which the coupling between the two dots can be broadly changed. For weakly coupled quantum dots we find Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. In an intermediate coupling regime we concentrate on the molecular states of the double dot and extract the magnetic field dependence of the coherent coupling.
Understanding the origin of hysteresis in the channel resistance from top gated graphene transistors is important for transistor applications. Capacitance - voltage measurements across the gate oxide on top gated bilayer graphene show hysteresis with a charging and discharging time constant of ~100 μs. However, the measured capacitance across the graphene channel does not show any hysteresis, but shows an abrupt jump at a high channel voltage due to the emergence of an order, indicating that the origin of hysteresis between gate and source is due to charge traps present in the gate oxide and g…
Electrolyte gating is a powerful technique for accumulating large carrier densities in surface two-dimensional electron systems (2DES). Yet this approach suffers from significant sources of disorder: electrochemical reactions can damage or alter the surface of interest, and the ions of the electrolyte and various dissolved contaminants sit Angstroms from the 2DES. Accordingly, electrolyte gating is well-suited to studies of superconductivity and other phenomena robust to disorder, but of limited use when reactions or disorder must be avoided. Here we demonstrate that these limitations can be o…
The confinement mechanism of electrons in gated circular quantum dots is studied in a sequence of models, from self-consistent 3D Hartree calculations to the semiclassical model of Shikin et al. Separation of the vertical from transverse confinement allows accurate 2D Hartree calculations. For moderate size dots containing $\sim 50$ electrons, 2D Thomas-Fermi can also be accurate. Finally, a Shikin type parameterization of the electron density allows quantitative study of the importance of the many contributions to the confinement potential.
We propose two schemes to coherently transfer arbitrary quantum states of the two-electron singlet-triplet qubit across a chain of 3 quantum dots. The schemes are based on electrical control over the detuning energy of the quantum dots. The first is a pulse-gated scheme, requiring dc pulses and engineering of inter- and intra-dot Coulomb energies. The second scheme is based on the adiabatic theorem, requiring time-dependent control of the detuning energy through avoided crossings at a rate that the system remains in the ground state. We simulate the transfer fidelity using typical experimental…
We discuss transport through double gated single and few layer graphene devices. This kind of device configuration has been used to investigate the modulation of the energy band structure through the application of an external perpendicular electric field, a unique property of few layer graphene systems. Here we discuss technological details that are important for the fabrication of top gated structures, based on electron-gun evaporation of SiO$_2$. We perform a statistical study that demonstrates how --contrary to expectations-- the breakdown field of electron-gun evaporated thin SiO$_2$ film…
To improve mobility of fabricated silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) quantum devices, forming gas annealing is a common method used to mitigate the effects of disorder at the Si/SiO2 interface. However, the importance of activation annealing is usually ignored. Here, we show that a high vacuum environment for implantation activation is beneficial for improving mobility compared to nitrogen atmosphere. Low-temperature transport measurements of Hall bars show that peak mobility can be improved by a factor of two, reaching 1.5 m^2/(Vs) using high vacuum annealing during implantation activati…
We present a theory and Coulomb and Spin Blockade spectroscopy experiments on quantum Hall droplets with controlled electron numbers (N1,N2) in laterally coupled gated quantum dots. The theory is based on the configuration interaction method (CI) coupled with the unrestricted Hartree-Fock (URHF) basis. It allows us to calculate the magnetic field evolution of ground and excited states of coupled quantum dots with large electron numbers. The method is applied to the spin transitions in the (5,5) droplet. Preliminary experimental results demonstrate the creation of the (5,5) droplet and its Spin…
Electron spins in silicon have long coherence times and are a promising qubit platform. However, electric field noise in semiconductors poses a challenge for most single- and multi-qubit operations in quantum-dot spin qubits. Here, we investigate the dependence of low-frequency charge noise spectra on temperature and aluminum-oxide gate dielectric thickness in Si/SiGe quantum dots with overlapping gates. We find that charge noise increases with aluminum oxide thickness. We also find strong dot-to-dot variations in the temperature dependence of the noise magnitude and spectrum. These findings s…
We present a simple technique which uses a self-aligned oxide etch to suspend individual single-wall carbon nanotubes between metallic electrodes. This enables one to compare the properties of a particular nanotube before and after suspension, as well as to study transport in suspended tubes. As an example of the utility of the technique, we study quantum dots in suspended tubes, finding that their capacitances are reduced owing to the removal of the dielectric substrate.
Understanding strongly interacting electrons enables the design of materials, nanostructures and devices. Developing this understanding relies on the ability to tune and control electron-electron interactions by, e.g., confining electrons to atomically thin layers of 2D crystals with reduced screening. The interplay of strong interactions on a hexagonal lattice with two nonequivalent valleys, topological moments, and the Ising-like spin-orbit interaction gives rise to a variety of phases of matter corresponding to valley and spin polarized broken symmetry states. In this work we describe a hig…
We demonstrate double quantum dots fabricated in undoped Si/SiGe heterostructures relying on a double top-gated design. Charge sensing shows that we can reliably deplete these devices to zero charge occupancy. Measurements and simulations confirm that the energetics are determined by the gate-induced electrostatic potentials. Pauli spin blockade has been observed via transport through the double dot in the two electron configuration, a critical step in performing coherent spin manipulations in Si.
We determine the locations of unintentional quantum dots (U-QDs) in a silicon nanowire with a precision of a few nanometers by comparing the capacitances to multiple gates with a capacitance simulation. Because we observe U-QDs in the same location of the wire in multiple devices, their cause is likely to be an unintended consequence of the fabrication, not random atomic-scale defects as is typically assumed. The locations of the U-QDs appear consistent with conduction band modulation from strain from the oxide and the gates. This allows us to suggest methods to reduce the frequency of U-QDs.
We study experimentally the electron transport properties of gated quantum dots formed in InGaAs/InP and InAsP/InP quantum well structures grown by chemical-beam epitaxy. For the case of the InGaAs quantum well, quantum dots form directly underneath narrow gate electrodes due to potential fluctuations. We measure the Coulomb-blockade diamonds in the few-electron regime of a single quantum dot and observe photon-assisted tunneling peaks under microwave irradiation. A singlet-triplet transition at high magnetic field and Coulomb-blockade effects in the quantum Hall regime are also observed. For …
Semiconductor quantum dots provide a two-dimensional analogy for real atoms and show promise for the implementation of scalable quantum computers. Here, we investigate the charge configurations in a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor double quantum dot tunnel coupled to a single reservoir of electrons. By operating the system in the few-electron regime, the stability diagram shows hysteretic tunnelling events that depend on the history of the dots charge occupancy. We present a model which accounts for the observed hysteretic behaviour by extending the established description for transport in d…
We report on low temperature measurements in a fully tunable carbon nanotube double quantum dot. A new fabrication technique has been used for the top-gates in order to avoid covering the whole nanotube with an oxide layer as in previous experiments. The top-gates allow us to form single dots, control the coupling between them and we observe four-fold shell filling. We perform inelastic transport spectroscopy via the excited states in the double quantum dot, a necessary step towards the implementation of new microwave-based experiments.
Spin qubits offer one of the most promising routes to the implementation of quantum computers. Very recent results in semiconductor quantum dots show that electrically-controlled gating schemes are particularly well-suited for the realization of a universal set of quantum logical gates. Scalability to a larger number of qubits, however, remains an issue for such semiconductor quantum dots. In contrast, a chemical bottom-up approach allows one to produce identical units in which localized spins represent the qubits. Molecular magnetism has produced a wide range of systems with tailored properti…
We study the effect of valence band spin-orbit interactions on the acoustic phonon assisted spin relaxation of holes confined in quantum dots. Heavy hole-light hole (hh-lh) mixing and all the spin-orbit terms arising from zinc-blende bulk inversion asymmetry (BIA) are considered on equal footing in a fully 3D Hamiltonian. We show that hh-lh mixing and BIA have comparable contributions to the hole spin relaxation in self-assembled QDs, but BIA becomes dominant in gated QDs. The dependence of the hole spin relaxation on the QD geometry and spin splitting energy is drastically different from that…
We report quantum dots fabricated on very shallow 2-dimensional electron gases, only 30 nm below the surface, in undoped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Due to the absence of dopants, an improvement of more than one order of magnitude in mobility (at 2E11 /cm^2) with respect to doped heterostructures with similar depths is observed. These undoped wafers can easily be gated with surface metallic gates patterned by e-beam lithography, as demonstrated here from single-level transport through a quantum dot showing large charging energies (up to 1.75 meV) and excited s…
We integrate ambipolar quantum dots in silicon fin field-effect transistors using exclusively standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor fabrication techniques. We realize ambipolarity by replacing conventional highly-doped source and drain electrodes by a metallic nickel silicide with Fermi level close to the silicon mid-gap position. Such devices operate in a dual mode, either as classical field-effect or single-electron transistor. We implement a classical logic NOT gate at low temperature by tuning two interconnected transistors into opposite polarities. In the quantum regime, we dem…
Magnetoresistance measurements have been performed on a gated two-dimensional electron system (2DES) separated by a thin barrier layer from a layer of InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs). Clear features of the quantum Hall effect were observed despite the proximity of the QDs layer to the 2DES. However, the magnetoresistance ($ρ_{xx}$) and Hall resistance ($ρ_{xy}$) are suppressed significantly in the magnetic field range of filling factor $ν<1$ when a positive voltage is applied to the front gate. The influence of the charge state in QDs was observed on the transport properties of the near…
Graphene/silicon (G/Si) heterojunction based devices have been demonstrated as high responsivity photodetectors that are potentially compatible with semiconductor technology. Such G/Si Schottky junction diodes are typically in parallel with gated G/silicon dioxide (SiO$_2$)/Si areas, where the graphene is contacted. Here, we utilize scanning photocurrent measurements to investigate the spatial distribution and explain the physical origin of photocurrent generation in these devices. We observe distinctly higher photocurrents underneath the isolating region of graphene on SiO$_2$ adjacent to the…
We present a novel reconfigurable metal-oxide-semiconductor multi-gate transistor that can host a quadruple quantum dot in silicon. The device consist of an industrial quadruple-gate silicon nanowire field-effect transistor. Exploiting the corner effect, we study the versatility of the structure in the single quantum dot and the serial double quantum dot regimes and extract the relevant capacitance parameters. We address the fabrication variability of the quadruple-gate approach which, paired with improved silicon fabrication techniques, makes the corner state quantum dot approach a promising …
Femtomolar detection of the heart failure biomarker NT-proBNP in artificial saliva using an immersible liquid-gated aptasensor with reduced graphene oxide
Many-particle electron states in semiconductor quantum dots with carrier-mediated ferromagnetism are studied theoretically within the self-consistent Boltzmann equation formalism. Depending on the conditions, a quantum dot may contain there phases: partially spin-polarized ferromagnetic, fully spin-polarized ferromagnetic, and paramagnetic phases. The physical properties of many-body ferromagnetic confined systems come from the competing carrier-mediated ferromagnetic and Coulomb interactions. The magnetic phases in gated quantum dots with holes can be controlled by the voltage or via optical …
We present a theory of quantum circuits based on logical qubits encoded in chirality of electron spin complexes in lateral gated semiconductor triple quantum dot molecules with one electron spin in each dot. Using microscopic Hamiltonian we show how to initialize, coherently control and measure the quantum state of a chirality based coded qubit using static in-plane magnetic field and voltage tuning of individual dots. The microscopic model of two interacting coded qubits is established and mapped to an Ising Hamiltonian, resulting in conditional two-qubit phase gate.
The deposition of a high-$κ$ oxide overlayer is known to significantly enhance the room-temperature electron mobility in single-layer MoS$_{2}$ (SLM) but not in single-layer graphene (SLG). We give a quantitative account of how this mobility enhancement is due to the non-degeneracy of the two-dimensional electron gas system in SLM at accessible temperatures. Using our charged impurity scattering model [Ong and Fischetti, Phys. Rev. B 86, 121409 (2012)] and temperature-dependent polarizability, we calculate the charged impurity-limited mobility ($μ_{\textrm{imp}}$) in SLM with and without a hig…
Spin-orbit coupling is key to all-electrical control of quantum-dot spin qubits, and is frequently stronger for holes than for electrons. Here we investigate Pauli spin blockade for two heavy holes in a gated double quantum dot in an in-plane magnetic field. The interplay of the complex Zeeman and spin-orbit couplings causes a blockade leakage current anisotropic in the field direction. The period of the anisotropic leakage is critically dependent on the relative magnitude of Zeeman interaction terms linear and cubic in the magnetic field. The current and singlet-triplet exchange splitting can…
We investigate near-field energy transfer between chemically synthesized quantum dots (QDs) and two-dimensional semiconductors. We fabricate devices in which electrostatically gated semiconducting monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is placed atop a homogenous self-assembled layer of core-shell CdSSe QDs. We demonstrate efficient non-radiative Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) from QDs into MoS2 and prove that modest gate-induced variation in the excitonic absorption of MoS2 lead to large (~500%) changes in the FRET rate. This, in turn, allows for up to ~75% electrical modulation of QD…
The valley-orbit coupling in a few-electron Si quantum dot is expected to be a function of its occupation number N. We study the spectrum of multivalley Si quantum dots for 2 <= N <= 4, showing that, counterintuitively, electron-electron interaction effects on the valley-orbit coupling are negligible. For N=2 they are suppressed by valley interference, for N=3 they vanish due to spinor overlaps, and for N = 4 they cancel between different pairs of electrons. To corroborate our theoretical findings, we examine the experimental energy spectrum of a few-electron metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum …
We report on two top-gate defined, coupled quantum dots in a semiconducting single wall carbon nanotube, constituting a tunable double quantum dot system. The single wall carbon nanotubes are contacted by titanium electrodes, and gated by three narrow top-gate electrodes as well as a back-gate. We show that a bias spectroscopy plot on just one of the two quantum dots can be used to extract the addition energy of both quantum dots. Furthermore, honeycomb charge stability diagrams are analyzed by an electrostatic capacitor model that includes cross capacitances, and we extract the coupling energ…
Low-Noise Quantum Dots in Ultra-Shallow Ge/SiGe Heterostructures for Prototyping Hybrid Semiconducting-Superconducting Devices
Institute of Science and Technology Austria（奥地利科学与技术研究所）；Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology – ICN2 (CSIC and BIST)（加泰罗尼亚纳米科学技术研究所（CSIC和BIST））
