We report transport measurements of strained InAs/In$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$Sb composite quantum wells (CQWs) in the quantum spin Hall phase, focusing on the control of the energy gap through structural parameters and an external electric field. For highly strained CQWs with $x = 0.4$, we obtain a gap of 35 meV, an order of magnitude larger than that reported for binary InAs/GaSb CQWs. Using a dual-gate configuration, we demonstrate an electrical-field-driven topological phase transition, which manifests itself as a re-entrant behavior of the energy gap. The sizeable energy gap and high bulk resistivity obtained in both the topological and normal phases of a single device open the possibility of electrical switching of the edge transport.
We report the observation of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effects in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) confined to an InAs/AlGaSb quantum well, using a dual-gated Hall-bar device allowing for the independent control of the vertical electric field and electron density. At a magnetic field of 24 T, we observe FQH states at several filling factors, namely $ν= 5/3$, $2/3$, and $1/3$, in addition to the $ν= 4/3$ previously reported for an InAs 2DEG. The $ν= 4/3$ and $5/3$ states, which are absent at zero back-gate voltage, emerge as the quantum well is made more symmetric by applying a positiv…
We study the influence of epitaxial strain on the electronic properties of InAs/GaSb composite quantum wells (CQWs), host structures for quantum spin Hall insulators, by transport measurements and eight-band $\mathbf{k\cdot p}$ calculations. Using different substrates and buffer layer structures for crystal growth, we prepare two types of samples with vastly different strain conditions. CQWs with a nearly strain-free GaSb layer exhibit a resistance peak at the charge neutrality point that reflects the opening of a topological gap in the band-inverted regime. In contrast, for CQWs with 0.50\% b…
In the present work, we have investigated the performances of p plus minus Al0.3Ga0.7Sb Pocket Implanted L shaped GaSb InAs staggered bandgap SG heterojunction vertical n channel tunnel field effect transistors TFETs of 4 nm thin channel structures with the gate lengths of 20 nm. In this L shaped nonlinear geometry the gate electric field and tunnel junction internal field are oriented in same direction. We have used a 3 D full band atomistic sp3d5s spin orbital coupled tight binding method based quantum mechanical simulator. We have investigated current voltage characteristics, ON current, OF…
Quantum dots realized in InAs are versatile systems to study the effect of spin-orbit interaction on the spin coherence, as well as the possibility to manipulate single spins using an electric field. We present transport measurements on quantum dots realized in InAs nanowires. Lithographically defined top-gates are used to locally deplete the nanowire and to form tunneling barriers. By using three gates, we can form either single quantum dots, or two quantum dots in series along the nanowire. Measurements of the stability diagrams for both cases show that this method is suitable for producing …
We investigate the correlations of mutual positions of charge density waves nodes in side-by-side placed InAs nanowires in presence of a conductive atomic force microscope tip served as a mobile gate at helium temperatures. Scanning gate microscopy scans demonstrate mutual correlation of positions of charge density waves nodes of two wires. A general mutual shift of the nodes positions and "crystal lattice mismatch" defect were observed. These observations demonstrate the crucial role of Coulomb interaction in formation of charge density waves in InAs nanowires.
InAs/GaSb heterostructure is one of the systems where quantum spin Hall effect is predicted to arise. However, as confirmed by recent experimental studies, the most significant highlight of the effect i.e., the conductance quantization due to non-trivial edge states is obscured by spurious conductivity arising from trivial edge states. In this work, we present experimental observation of strong localization of trivial edge modes in an InAs/GaSb heterostructure which was weakly disordered by silicon delta-like dopants within the InAs layer. The edge conduction which is characterized by a temper…
Nanostructures in InAs quantum wells have so far remained outside of the scope of traditional microfabrication techniques based on etching. This is due to parasitic parallel conduction arising from charge carrier accumulation at the physical edges of samples. Here we present a technique which enables the realization of quantum point contacts and quantum dots in two-dimensional electron gases of InAs purely by electrostatic gating. Multiple layers of top gates separated by dielectric layers are employed. Full quantum point contact pinch-off and measurements of Coulomb-blockade diamonds of quant…
We report a gate-controlled transition of a semimetallic InAs/GaSb heterostructure to a topological insulator. The transition is induced by decreasing the degree of band inversion with front and back gate voltages. Temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistance peak shows the energy gap opening in the bulk region with increasing gate electric field. The suppression of bulk conduction and the transition to a topological insulator are confirmed by nonlocal resistance measurements using a dual lock-in technique, which allows us to rigorously compare the voltage distribution in the sample f…
The two-dimensional topological insulator state in InAs/GaSb quantum wells manifests itself by topologically protected helical edge channel transport relying on an insulating bulk. This work investigates a way of suppressing bulk conductivity by using gallium source materials of different degrees of impurity concentrations. While highest-purity gallium is accompanied by clear conduction through the sample bulk, intentional impurity incorporation lead to a bulk resistance over 1 MΩ. This resistance was found to be independent of applied magnetic fields. Ultra high electron mobilities for GaAs/A…
We study the g-factor of discrete electron states in InAs nanowire based quantum dots. The g values are determined from the magnetic field splitting of the zero bias anomaly due to the spin 1/2-Kondo effect. Unlike to previous studies based on 2DEG quantum dots, the g-factors of neighboring electron states show a surprisingly large fluctuation: g can scatter between 2 and 18. Furthermore electric gate tunability of the g-factor is demonstrated.
We report fabrication and measurement of a device where closely-placed two parallel InAs nanowires (NWs) are contacted by source and drain normal metal electrodes. Established technique includes selective deposition of double nanowires onto a previously defined gate region. By tuning the junction with the finger bottom gates, we confirmed the formation of parallel double quantum dots, one in each NW, with a finite electrostatic coupling between each other. With the fabrication technique established in this study, devices proposed for more advanced experiments, such as Cooper-pair splitting and…
We present low temperature transport measurements on double quantum dots in InAs nanowires grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. Two dots in series are created by lithographically defined top-gates with a procedure involving no extra insulating layer. We demonstrate the full tunability from strong to weak coupling between the dots. The quantum mechanical nature of the coupling leads to the formation of a molecular state extending over both dots. The excitation spectra of the individual dots are observable by their signatures in the nonlinear transport.
We report on an experimental study of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in an epitaxially grown free-standing InAs nanosheet in a dual-gate field-effect device. Gate-transfer characteristic measurements show that independent tunings of the carrier density in the nanosheet and the potential difference across the nanosheet can be efficiently achieved with use of the dual gate. The quantum transport characteristics of the InAs nanosheet are investigated by magnetoconductance measurements at low temperatures. It is shown that the electron transport in the nanosheet can be tuned from the weak antilo…
Understanding the microscopic origin of the gate-controlled supercurrent (GCS) in superconducting nanobridges is crucial for engineering superconducting switches suitable for a variety of electronic applications. The origin of GCS is controversial, and various mechanisms have been proposed to explain it. In this work, we have investigated the GCS in a Ta layer deposited on the surface of InAs nanowires. Comparison between switching current distributions at opposite gate polarities and between the gate dependence of two opposite side gates with different nanowire$-$gate spacings shows that the …
We study the evolution of the quantum scattering time by gate voltage training in the topological insulator based on InAs/GaSb/InAs trilayer quantum wells. Depending on the minimal gate voltage applied during a gate voltage sweep cycle, the quantum scattering time can be improved by 50 % from 0.08 ps to 0.12 ps albeit the transport scattering time is rather constant around 1.0 ps. The ratio of the quantum scattering time versus transport scattering time scales linearly with the charge carrier density and varies from 10 to 30, indicating Coulombic scattering as the dominant scattering mechanism…
In a standard Josephson junction the current is zero when the phase difference between the superconducting leads is zero. This condition is protected by parity and time-reversal symmetries. However, the combined presence of spin-orbit coupling and magnetic field breaks these symmetries and can lead to a finite supercurrent even when the phase difference is zero. This is the so called anomalous Josephson effect -- the hallmark effect of superconducting spintronics --and can be characterized by the corresponding anomalous phase shift ($ϕ_0$). We report the observation of a tunable anomalous Jose…
We study a gate-tunable superconducting qubit (gatemon) based on a thin InAs-Al hybrid nanowire. Using a gate voltage to control its Josephson energy, the gatemon can reach the strong coupling regime to a microwave cavity. In the dispersive regime, we extract the energy relaxation time $T_1\sim$0.56 $μ$s and the dephasing time $T_2^* \sim$0.38 $μ$s. Since thin InAs-Al nanowires can have fewer or single sub-band occupation and recent transport experiment shows the existence of nearly quantized zero-bias conductance peaks, our result holds relevancy for detecting Majorana zero modes in thin InAs…
The charge character of Andreev bound states (ABSs) in a three-terminal semiconductor-superconductor hybrid nanowire was measured using local and nonlocal tunneling spectroscopy. The device is fabricated using an epitaxial InAs/Al two-dimensional heterostructure with several gate-defined side probes. ABSs are found to oscillate around zero as a function of gate voltage, with modifications of their charge consistent with theoretical expectations for the total Bardeen-Cooper- Schrieffer (BCS) charge of ABSs.
Semiconducting nanowires (NWs) are a versatile, highly tunable material platform at the heart of many new developments in nanoscale and quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate charge pumping, i.e., the controlled transport of individual electrons through an InAs NW quantum dot (QD) device at frequencies up to $1.3\,$GHz. The QD is induced electrostatically in the NW by a series of local bottom gates in a state of the art device geometry. A periodic modulation of a single gate is enough to obtain a dc current proportional to the frequency of the modulation. The dc bias, the modulation amplitude a…
We experimentally study quantized conductance in an electrostatically defined constriction in a high-mobility InAs two-dimensional electron gas. A parallel magnetic field lifts the spin degeneracy and allows for the observation of plateaus in integer multiples of $e^2/h$. Upon the application of a perpendicular magnetic field, spin-resolved magnetoelectric subbands are visible. Through finite bias spectroscopy we measure the subband spacings in both parallel and perpendicular direction of the magnetic field and determine the $g$-factor.
In the present work, we have investigated ballistic quantum transport in vertical halo implanted p plus minus GaSb InAs n TFETs. We have investigated the current voltage characteristics, ON current, OFF current leakage, subthreshold swing variation as function of gate length, drain length, gate undercut, equivalent oxide thickness, High K and drain thickness. The electrostatic control, I V performances and optimization of device structure are carried out for novel L shaped nonlinear geometry n TFETs. In the n TFETs device p plus minus GaSb InAs heterostructure gives rise to type III broken gap…
We report a backgated InAs/GaSb double quantum well device grown on GaSb substrate. The use of the native substrate allows for high materials quality with electron mobility in excess of 500,000 cm2/Vs at sheet charge density of 8x1011 cm-2 and approaching 100,000 cm2/Vs near the charge neutrality point (CNP). Lattice matching between the quantum well structure and the substrate eliminates the need for a thick buffer, enabling large back gate capacitance and efficient coupling with the conduction channels in the quantum wells. As a result, quantum Hall effects are observed in both electron and …
We measure the non-dissipative supercurrent in a single InAs self-assembled quantum dot (QD) coupled to superconducting leads. The QD occupation is both tuned by a back-gate electrode and lateral side-gate. The geometry of the side-gate allows tuning of the QD-lead tunnel coupling in a region of constant electron number with appropriate orbital state. Using the side-gate effect we study the competition between Kondo correlations and superconducting pairing on the QD, observing a decrease in the supercurrent when the Kondo temperature is reduced below the superconducting energy gap in qualitati…
Gate-controlled supercurrent (GCS) in superconductor nanobridges has recently attracted attention as a means to create superconducting field effect transistors. Despite the clear advantage for applications with low power consumption and high switching speeds, the microscopic mechanism of the field effect is still under debate. In this work, we realize GCS for the first time in an epitaxial superconductor, which is created as a shell on an InAs nanowire. We show that the supercurrent in the epitaxial Al layer can be switched to the normal state by applying $\simeq\pm$ 23$\,$V on a bottom gate i…
We measure transport at finite bias through a double quantum dot formed by top-gates in an InAs nanowire. Pauli spin-bockade is confirmed with several electrons in the dot. This is expected due to the small exchange interactions in InAs and the large singlet-triplet splitting, which can be measured and tuned by a gate voltage.
One-dimensional (1D) sub-bands in cylindrical InAs nanowires (NWs) are electrically mapped as a function of NW diameter in the range of 15-35 nm. At low temperatures, stepwise current increases with the gate voltage are clearly observed and attributed to the electron transport through individual 1D sub-bands. The two-fold degeneracy in certain sub-band energies predicted by simulation due to structural symmetry is experimentally observed for the first time. The experimentally obtained sub-band energies match the simulated results, shedding light on both the energies of the sub-bands as well as…
Spin-orbit interaction is investigated in a dual gated InAs/GaSb quantum well. Using an electric field the quantum well can be tuned between a single carrier regime with exclusively electrons as carriers and a two-carriers regime where electrons and holes coexist. Spin-orbit interaction in both regimes manifests itself as a beating in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. In the single carrier regime the linear Dresselhaus strength is characterized by $β=$ 28.5 meV$Å$ and the Rashba coefficient $α$ is tuned from 75 to 53 meV$Å$ by changing the electric field. In the two-carriers regime the spin …
A key concept in the emerging field of spintronics is the gate voltage or electric field control of spin precession via the effective magnetic field generated by the Rashba spin orbit interaction. Here, we demonstrate the generation and tuning of electric field induced Rashba spin orbit interaction in InAs nanowires where a strong electric field is created either by a double gate or a solid electrolyte surrounding gate. In particular, the electrolyte gating enables six-fold tuning of Rashba coefficient and nearly three orders of magnitude tuning of spin relaxation time within only 1 V of gate …
In the current paper a set of experiments dedicated to investigations of local electronic transport in undoped InAs nanowires at helium temperatures in the presence of a charged atomic-force microscope tip is presented. Both nanowires without defects and with internal tunneling barriers were studied. The measurements were performed at various carrier concentrations in the systems and opacity of contact-to-wire interfaces. The regime of Coulomb blockade is investigated in detail including negative differential conductivity of the whole system. The situation with open contacts with one tunneling…
We performed measurements at helium temperatures of the electronic transport in an InAs quantum wire ($R_{wire} \sim 30$\,k$Ω$) in the presence of a charged tip of an atomic force microscope serving as a mobile gate. The period and the amplitude of the observed quasiperiodic oscillations are investigated in detail as a function of electron concentration in the linear and non-linear regime. We demonstrate the influence of the tip-to-sample distance on the ability to locally affect the top subband electrons as well as the electrons in the disordered sea. Furthermore, we introduce a new method of…
We report a method for making horizontal wrap-gate nanowire transistors with up to four independently controllable wrap-gated segments. While the step up to two independent wrap-gates requires a major change in fabrication methodology, a key advantage to this new approach, and the horizontal orientation more generally, is that achieving more than two wrap-gate segments then requires no extra fabrication steps. This is in contrast to the vertical orientation, where a significant subset of the fabrication steps needs to be repeated for each additional gate. We show that cross-talk between adjace…
The purpose of this work is to fabricate ribbon-like InGaAs and InAsP wires embedded in InP ridge structures and investigate their transport properties. The InP ridge structures that contain the wires are selectively grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) on pre-patterned InP substrates. To optimize the growth and micro-fabrication processes for electronic transport, we explore the Ohmic contact resistance, the electron density, and the mobility as a function of the wire width using standard transport and Shubnikov-de Haas measurements. At low temperatures the ridge structures reveal reproducibl…
We have fabricated a lateral double barrier magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) which consists of a single self-assembled InAs quantum dot (QD) with ferromagnetic Co leads. The MTJ shows clear hysteretic tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect, which is evidence for spin transport through a single semiconductor QD. The TMR ratio and the curve shapes are varied by changing the gate voltage.
A simulation methodology for ultra-scaled InAs quantum well field effect transistors (QWFETs) is presented and used to provide design guidelines and a path to improve device performance. A multiscale modeling approach is adopted, where strain is computed in an atomistic valence-force-field method, an atomistic sp3d5s* tight-binding model is used to compute channel effective masses, and a 2-D real-space effective mass based ballistic quantum transport model is employed to simulate three terminal current-voltage characteristics including gate leakage. The simulation methodology is first benchmar…
We present our recent electronic transport results in top-gated InAs/GaSb quantum well hybrid structures with superconducting Ta electrodes. We show that the transport across the InAs-Ta junction depends largely on the interfacial transparency, exhibiting distinct zero-bias behavior. For a relatively resistive interface a broad conductance peak is observed at zero bias. When a transparent InAs-Ta interface is achieved, a zero-bias conductance dip appears with two coherent-peak-like features forming at bias voltages corresponding to the superconducting gap of Ta. The conductance spectra of the …
In the present work, we have investigated the performances of L shaped Vertical broken bandgapheterostructureInSb InAsn-channel tunnel field effect transistors TFETs of 4 nm thin channel structures with the gate lengths of 20nm. We have used a 3D full band, quantum mechanical simulator based on atomistic sp3d5s spin-orbital coupled tight binding method.In this L shaped nonlinear geometry the gate electric field and tunnel junction internal field are oriented in same direction. A broken narrow bandgap BG structure has another advantage that transport is by mixture of electrons holes. TFETs are …
InAs-based two-dimensional electron systems grown on lattice mismatched InP substrates offer a robust platform for the pursuit of topologically protected quantum computing. We investigated strained composite quantum wells of In$_{0.75}$Ga$_{0.25}$As/InAs/In$_{0.75}$Ga$_{0.25}$As with In$_{0.75}$Al$_{0.25}$As barriers. By optimizing the widths of the In$_{0.75}$Ga$_{0.25}$As layers, the In$_{0.75}$Al$_{0.25}$As barrier, and the InAs quantum well we demonstrate mobility in excess of $1 \times 10^{6}\,$cm$^{2}/$Vs. Mobility vs. density data indicates that scattering is dominated by a residual thr…
The observation of a 0.5 conductance plateau in asymmetrically biased quantum point contacts with in-plane side gates has been attributed to the onset of spin-polarized current through these structures. For InAs quantum point contacts with the same width but longer channel length, there is roughly a fourfold increase in the range of common sweep voltage applied to the side gates over which the 0.5 conductance plateau is observed when the QPC aspect ratio (ratio of length over width of the narrow portion of the structure) is increased by a factor 3. Non-equilibrium Green s function simulations …
In this work we investigate spin diffusion in InAs quantum wells with the Rashba spin-orbit coupling modulated by a gate voltage. The gate voltage dependence of the spin diffusion under different temperatures is studied with all the scattering explicitly included. Our result partially supports the claim of the realization of the Datta-Das spin-injected field effect transistor by Koo {\it et al.} [Science {\bf 325}, 1515 (2009)]. We also show that the scattering plays an important role in spin diffusion in such a system.
We study the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in InAs/ GaSb and InAs quantum wells. We show through temperature- and gate-dependent magnetotransport measurements of weak antilocalization that the dominant spin-orbit relaxation mechanism in our low-mobility heterostructures is Elliott-Yafet and not Dyakonov-Perel in the form of the Rashba or Dresselhaus SOI as previously suggested. We compare our findings with recent work on this material system and show that the SOI length lies within the same range. The SOI length may be controlled using an electrostatic gate, opening up prospects for developing …
InAs/GaSb double quantum wells (QWs) separated by a 100 Å AlSb middle barrier are grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We report a nanofabrication technique that utilizes the surface Fermi level pinning position in InAs $[E_f^s(\rm InAs)]$ for realizing independent electric contacts to each well. In particular, separate ohmic contacts to the upper InAs quantum well are achieved by selectively etching down to the InAs, while contacts to the lower GaSb quantum well are obtained by the depletion method. For the latter, the upper InAs quantum well is locally pinched off by top etched trenches capped w…
We report on a low-temperature transport study of a single-gate, planar field-effect device made from a free-standing, wurtzite-crystalline InAs nanosheet. The nanosheet is grown via molecular beam epitaxy and the field-effect device is characterized by gate transfer characteristic measurements and by magnetic field orientation dependent transport measurements. The measurements show that the device exhibits excellent electrical properties and the electron transport in the nanosheet is of the two-dimensional nature. Low-field magnetoconductance measurements are performed for the device at diffe…
We report the transport measurements on the InAs self-assembled quantum dots (SAQDs) which have a unique structural zero-dimensionality, coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). Owing to the SQUID geometry, we directly observe a π phase shift in the current phase relation and the negative supercurrent indicating π junction behavior by not only tuning the energy level of SAQD by back-gate but also controlling the coupling between SAQD and electrodes by side-gate. Our results inspire new future quantum information devices which can link optical, spin, and superconducting…
We report on low temperature (2-30K) electron transport and magneto-transport measurements of a chemically synthesized InAs nanowire. Both the temperature, T, and transverse magnetic field dependences of the nanowire conductance are consistent with the functional forms predicted in one-dimensional (1D) weak localization theory. By fitting the magneto-conductance data to theory, the phase coherence length of electrons is determined to be tens of nanometers with a T-1/3 dependence. Moreover, as the electron density is increased by a gate voltage, the magneto-conductance shows a possible signatur…
Indium arsenide (InAs) nanowires (NWs) are a promising platform to fabricate quantum electronic devices, among others they have strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI). The controlled tuning of the SOI is desired in spin based quantum devices. In this study we investigate the possibility of tuning the SOI by electrostatic field, which is generated by a back gate and two side gates placed on the opposite sides of the NW. The strength of the SOI is analyzed by weak anti-localization effect. We demonstrate that the strength of SOI can be strongly tuned by a factor of 2 with the electric field across …
In an ideal InAs/GaSb bilayer of appropriate dimension in-plane electron and hole bands overlap and hybridize, and a topologically non-trivial, or quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator, phase is predicted to exist. The in-plane dispersion's potential landscape, however, is subject to microscopic perturbations originating from material imperfections. In this work, the effect of disorder on the electronic structure of InAs/GaSb bilayers was studied by the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the resistance of a dual-gated heterostructures gate-tuned through the inverted to normal gap regimes…
Bound states in superconductor-nanowire hybrid devices play a central role, carrying informationon the ground states properties (Shiba or Andreev states) or on the topological properties of thesystem (Majorana states). The spectroscopy of such bound states relies on the formation of well-defined tunnel barriers, usually defined by gate electrodes, which results in smooth tunnel barriers.Here we used thin InP segments embedded into InAs nanowire during the growth process to forma sharp built-in tunnel barrier. Gate dependence and thermal activation measurements have beenused to confirm the pres…
We demonstrate an electric-field control of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect in a semiconductor quantum-dot (QD) spin-valve device. By using ferromagnetic Ni nano-gap electrodes, we observe the Coulomb blockade oscillations at a small bias voltage. In the vicinity of the Coulomb blockade peak, the TMR effect is significantly modulated and even its sign is switched by changing the gate voltage, where the sign of the TMR value changes at the resonant condition.
We report electrical conductance and thermopower measurements on InAs nanowires synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. Gate modulation of the thermopower of individual InAs nanowires with diameter around 20nm is obtained over T=40 to 300K. At low temperatures (T< ~100K), oscillations in the thermopower and power factor concomitant with the stepwise conductance increases are observed as the gate voltage shifts the chemical potential of electrons in InAs nanowire through quasi-one-dimensional (1D) sub-bands. This work experimentally shows the possibility to modulate semiconductor nanowire's t…
We investigate the performance of gate-defined devices fabricated on high mobility InAs metamorphic heterostructures. We find that heterostructures capped with In$_{0.75}$Ga$_{0.25}$As often show signs of parallel conduction due to proximity of their surface Fermi level to the conduction band minimum. Here, we introduce a technique that can be used to estimate the density of this surface charge that involves cool-downs from room temperature under gate bias. We have been able to remove the parallel conduction under high positive bias, but achieving full depletion has proven difficult. We find t…
Understanding the spatial distribution of charge carriers in III-V nanowires proximity coupled to superconductors is important for the design and interpretation of experiments based on hybrid quantum devices. In this letter, the gate-dependent surface accumulation layer of InAsSb/Al nanowires was studied by means of Andreev interference in a parallel magnetic field. Both uniform hybrid nanowires and devices featuring a short Josephson junction fabricated by shadow lithography, exhibited periodic modulation of the switching current. The period corresponds to a flux quantum through the nanowire …
Nanowire heterostructures define high-quality few-electron quantum dots for nanoelectronics, spintronics and quantum information processing. We use a cooled scanning probe microscope (SPM) to image and control an InAs quantum dot in an InAs/InP nanowire, using the tip as a movable gate. Images of dot conductance vs. tip position at T = 4.2 K show concentric rings as electrons are added, starting with the first electron. The SPM can locate a dot along a nanowire and individually tune its charge, abilities that will be very useful for the control of coupled nanowire dots.
We report experiments on gated Y-branch switches made from InAs ballistic electron wave guides. We demonstrate that gating modifies the electron wave functions as well as their interference pattern, causing the anti-correlated, oscillatory transconductances. Such previously unexpected phenomenon provides evidence of steering the electron wave function in a multi-channel transistor structure.
