Gate-defined Quantum Dots Research Articles

Anisotropic Pauli spin blockade in hole quantum dots

We present measurements on gate-defined double quantum dots in Ge-Si core-shell nanowires, which we tune to a regime with visible shell filling in both dots. We observe a Pauli spin blockade and can assign the measured leakage current at low magnetic fields to spin-flip cotunneling, for which we measure a strong anisotropy related to an anisotropic $g$ factor. At higher magnetic fields we see signatures for leakage current caused by spin-orbit coupling between (1,1) singlet and (2,0) triplet states. Taking into account these anisotropic spin-flip mechanisms, we can choose the magnetic field direction with the longest spin lifetime for improved spin-orbit qubits.

Comparison of low frequency charge noise in identically patterned Si/SiO2 and Si/SiGe quantum dots

We investigate and compare the charge noise in Si/SiO2 and Si/SiGe gate defined quantum dots with identically patterned gates by measuring the low frequency 1/f current noise through the biased quantum dots in the coulomb blockade regime. The current noise is normalized and used to extract a measurement of the potential energy noise in the system. Additionally, the temperature dependence of this noise is investigated. The measured charge noise in Si/SiO2 compares favorably with that of the SiGe device as well as previous measurements made on other substrates suggesting Si/SiO2 is a potential candidate for spin based quantum computing.

Computer-automated tuning of semiconductor double quantum dots into the single-electron regime

We report the computer-automated tuning of gate-defined semiconductor double quantum dots in GaAs heterostructures. We benchmark the algorithm by creating three double quantum dots inside a linear array of four quantum dots. The algorithm sets the correct gate voltages for all the gates to tune the double quantum dots into the single-electron regime. The algorithm only requires (1) prior knowledge of the gate design and (2) the pinch-off value of the single gate T that is shared by all the quantum dots. This work significantly alleviates the user effort required to tune multiple quantum dot devices.

Quadrupolar and anisotropy effects on dephasing in two-electron spin qubits in GaAs.

Understanding the decoherence of electron spins in semiconductors due to their interaction with nuclear spins is of fundamental interest as they realize the central spin model and of practical importance for using them as qubits. Interesting effects arise from the quadrupolar interaction of nuclear spins with electric field gradients, which have been shown to suppress diffusive nuclear spin dynamics and might thus enhance electron spin coherence. Here we show experimentally that for gate-defined GaAs quantum dots, quadrupolar broadening of the nuclear Larmor precession reduces electron spin coherence by causing faster decorrelation of transverse nuclear fields. However, this effect disappears for appropriate field directions. Furthermore, we observe an additional modulation of coherence attributed to an anisotropic electronic g-tensor. These results complete our understanding of dephasing in gated quantum dots and point to mitigation strategies. They may also help to unravel unexplained behaviour in self-assembled quantum dots and III–V nanowires.

Gate-controlled electromechanical backaction induced by a quantum dot.

Semiconductor-based quantum structures integrated into mechanical resonators have emerged as a unique platform for generating entanglement between macroscopic phononic and mesocopic electronic degrees of freedom. A key challenge to realizing this is the ability to create and control the coupling between two vastly dissimilar systems. Here, such coupling is demonstrated in a hybrid device composed of a gate-defined quantum dot integrated into a piezoelectricity-based mechanical resonator enabling milli-Kelvin phonon states to be detected via charge fluctuations in the quantum dot. Conversely, the single electron transport in the quantum dot can induce a backaction onto the mechanics where appropriate bias of the quantum dot can enable damping and even current-driven amplification of the mechanical motion. Such electron transport induced control of the mechanical resonator dynamics paves the way towards a new class of hybrid semiconductor devices including a current injected phonon laser and an on-demand single phonon emitter.

Characterization of a gate-defined double quantum dot in a Si/SiGe nanomembrane

We report the fabrication and characterization of a gate-defined double quantum dot formed in a Si/SiGe nanomembrane. In the past, all gate-defined quantum dots in Si/SiGe heterostructures were formed on top of strain-graded virtual substrates. The strain grading process necessarily introduces misfit dislocations into a heterostructure, and these defects introduce lateral strain inhomogeneities, mosaic tilt, and threading dislocations. The use of a SiGe nanomembrane as the virtual substrate enables the strain relaxation to be entirely elastic, eliminating the need for misfit dislocations. However, in this approach the formation of the heterostructure is more complicated, involving two separate epitaxial growth procedures separated by a wet-transfer process that results in a buried non-epitaxial interface 625 nm from the quantum dot. We demonstrate that in spite of this buried interface in close proximity to the device, a double quantum dot can be formed that is controllable enough to enable tuning of the inter-dot tunnel coupling, the identification of spin states, and the measurement of a singlet-to-triplet transition as a function of an applied magnetic field.

Signatures of single quantum dots in graphene nanoribbons within the quantum Hall regime.

We report on the observation of periodic conductance oscillations near quantum Hall plateaus in suspended graphene nanoribbons. They are attributed to single quantum dots that are formed in the narrowest part of the ribbon, in the valleys and hills of a disorder potential. In a wide flake with two gates, a double-dot system's signature has been observed. Electrostatic confinement is enabled in single-layer graphene due to the gaps that are formed between the Landau levels, suggesting a way to create gate-defined quantum dots that can be accessed with quantum Hall edge states.

Bistable Photon Emission from a Solid-State Single-Atom Laser.

We predict a bistability in the photon emission from a solid-state single-atom laser comprising a microwave cavity coupled to a voltage-biased double quantum dot. To demonstrate that the single-atom laser is bistable, we evaluate the photon emission statistics and show that the distribution takes the shape of a tilted ellipse. The switching rates of the bistability can be extracted from the electrical current and the shot noise in the quantum dots. This provides a means to control the photon emission statistics by modulating the electronic transport in the quantum dots. Our prediction is robust against moderate electronic decoherence and dephasing and is important for current efforts to realize single-atom lasers with gate-defined quantum dots as the gain medium.

Transport through an impurity tunnel coupled to a Si/SiGe quantum dot

Achieving controllable coupling of dopants in silicon is crucial for operating donor-based qubit devices, but it is difficult because of the small size of donor-bound electron wavefunctions. Here, we report the characterization of a quantum dot coupled to a localized electronic state and present evidence of controllable coupling between the quantum dot and the localized state. A set of measurements of transport through the device enable the determination that the most likely location of the localized state is consistent with a location in the quantum well near the edge of the quantum dot. Our results are consistent with a gate-voltage controllable tunnel coupling, which is an important building block for hybrid donor and gate-defined quantum dot devices.

Spin-current Seebeck effect in an interacting quantum dot: Atomic approximation for the Anderson impurity model

We study the spin-current Seebeck effect through an immersed gate defined quantum dot, employing the U-finite atomic method for the single impurity Anderson model. Our description qualitatively confirms some of the results obtained by an earlier Hartree–Fock work, but as our calculation includes the Kondo effect, some new features will appear in the spin-current Seebeck effect S, which as a function of the gate voltage present an oscillatory shape. At intermediate temperatures, our results show a three zero structure and at low temperatures, our results are governed by the emergence of the Kondo peak in the transmittance, which defines the behavior of the shape of the S coefficient as a function of the parameters of the model.The oscillatory behavior obtained by the Hartree–Fock approximation reproduces the shape obtained by us in a non-interacting system (U=0). The S sign is sensitive to different polarization of the quantum dot, and as a consequence the device could be employed to experimentally detect the polarization states of the system. Our results also confirm that the large increase of S upon increasing U, obtained by the mean field approximation, is correct only for low temperatures. We also discuss the role of the Kondo peak in defining the behavior of the spin thermopower at low temperatures.

Electron-Hole Confinement Symmetry in Silicon Quantum Dots.

We report electrical transport measurements on a gate-defined ambipolar quantum dot in intrinsic silicon. The ambipolarity allows its operation as either an electron or a hole quantum dot of which we change the dot occupancy by 20 charge carriers in each regime. Electron-hole confinement symmetry is evidenced by the extracted gate capacitances and charging energies. The results demonstrate that ambipolar quantum dots offer great potential for spin-based quantum information processing, since confined electrons and holes can be compared and manipulated in the same crystalline environment.

Electron confinement in graphene with gate-defined quantum dots

We theoretically analyse the possibility to electrostatically confine electrons in circular quantum dot arrays, impressed on contacted graphene nanoribbons by top gates. Utilising exact numerical techniques, we compute the scattering efficiency of a single dot and demonstrate that for small-sized scatterers the cross-sections are dominated by quantum effects, where resonant scattering leads to a series of quasi-bound dot states. Calculating the conductance and the local density of states for quantum dot superlattices we show that the resonant carrier transport through such graphene-based nanostructures can be easily tuned by varying the gate voltage.

Two-qubit pulse gate for the three-electron double quantum dot qubit

The three-electron configuration of gate-defined double quantum dots encodes a promising qubit for quantum information processing. I propose a two-qubit entangling gate using a pulse-gated manipulation procedure. The requirements for high-fidelity entangling operations are equivalent to the requirements for the pulse-gated single-qubit manipulations that have been successfully realized for Si QDs. This two-qubit gate completes the universal set of all-pulse-gated operations for the three-electron double-dot qubit and paves the way for a scalable setup to achieve quantum computation.

A gate defined quantum dot on the two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor WSe2.

Two-dimensional layered materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), are promising materials for future electronics owing to their unique electronic properties. With the presence of a band gap, atomically thin gate defined quantum dots (QDs) can be achieved on TMDCs. Herein, standard semiconductor fabrication techniques are used to demonstrate quantum confined structures on WSe2 with tunnel barriers defined by electric fields, therefore eliminating the edge states induced by etching steps, which commonly appear in gapless graphene QDs. Over 40 consecutive Coulomb diamonds with a charging energy of approximately 2 meV were observed, showing the formation of a QD, which is consistent with the simulations. The size of the QD could be tuned over a factor of 2 by changing the voltages applied to the top gates. These results shed light on a way to obtain smaller quantum dots on TMDCs with the same top gate geometry compared to traditional GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures with further research.

Exchange-based two-qubit gate for singlet-triplet qubits

We analyze a simple exchange-based two-qubit gate for singlet-triplet qubits in gate-defined semiconductor quantum dots that can be implemented in a single exchange pulse. Excitations from the logical subspace are suppressed by a magnetic field gradient that causes spin-flip transitions to be non-energy-conserving. We show that the use of adiabatic pulses greatly reduces leakage processes comapred to square pulses. We also characterize the effect of charge noise on the entanglement fidelity of the gate both analytically and in simulations; demonstrating high entanglement fidelities for physically realistic experimental parameters. Specifically we find that it is possible to achieve fidelities and gate times that are comparable to single-qubit states using realistic magnetic field gradients.

Density of states as a probe of electrostatic confinement in graphene

We theoretically analyze the possibility to confine electrons in single-layer graphene with the help of metallic gates, via the evaluation of the density of states of such a gate-defined quantum dot in the presence of a ring-shaped metallic contact. The possibility to electrostatically confine electrons in a gate-defined ``quantum dot'' with finite-carrier density, surrounded by an undoped graphene sheet, strongly depends on the integrability of the electron dynamics in the quantum dot. With the present calculations we can quantitatively compare confinement in dots with integrable and chaotic dynamics, and verify the prediction that the Berry phase associated with the pseudospin leads to partial confinement in situations where no confinement is expected according to the arguments relying on the classical dynamics only.

Electron spin relaxation due to charge noise

We study decoherence of an electron spin qubit in a quantum dot due to charge noise. We find that at the lowest order in spin-orbit interaction, the pure dephasing channel is suppressed for both $1/f$ charge noise and Johnson noise, so that charge noise leads to a pure relaxation channel of decoherence. Because of the weaker magnetic field dependence, the spin relaxation rate due to charge noise could dominate over phonon noise at low magnetic fields in a gate-defined GaAs or Si quantum dot or an InAs self-assembled quantum dot. Furthermore, in a large InAs self-assembled quantum dot, spin relaxation due to phonon noise could be suppressed in high magnetic fields due to the suppression of the coupling matrix element, so that the spin relaxation due to charge noise could dominate in both low and high magnetic fields. Numerically, in a 1 T magnetic field, the spin relaxation time due to typical charge noise is about 100 s in Si, $0.1$ s in GaAs for a gate-defined quantum dot with a 1 meV confinement, and 10 $\ensuremath{\mu}$s (or 1 s) in InAs self-assembled quantum dot with a 4 meV (or 30 meV) confinement.

Dot-bound and dispersive states in graphene quantum dot superlattices

We consider a square lattice configuration of circular gate-defined quantum dots in an unbiased graphene sheet and calculate the electronic, particularly spectral properties of finite albeit actual sample sized systems by means of a numerically exact kernel polynomial expansion technique. Analyzing the local density of states and the momentum resolved photoemission spectrum we find clear evidence for a series of quasi-bound states at the dots, which can be probed by optical measurements. We further analyze the interplay of the superlattice structure with dot localized modes on the electron energy dispersion. Effects of disordered dot lattices are discussed too.

GaAs Quantum Dot Thermometry Using Direct Transport and Charge Sensing

We present measurements of the electron temperature using gate defined quantum dots formed in a GaAs 2D electron gas in both direct transport and charge sensing mode. Decent agreement with the refrigerator temperature was observed over a broad range of temperatures down to 10 mK. Upon cooling nuclear demagnetization stages integrated into the sample wires below 1 mK, the device electron temperature saturates, remaining close to 10 mK. The extreme sensitivity of the thermometer to its environment as well as electronic noise complicates temperature measurements but could potentially provide further insight into the device characteristics. We discuss thermal coupling mechanisms, address possible reasons for the temperature saturation and delineate the prospects of further reducing the device electron temperature.

Single to quadruple quantum dots with tunable tunnel couplings

We prepare a gate-defined quadruple quantum dot to study the gate-tunability of single to quadruple quantum dots with finite inter-dot tunnel couplings. The measured charging energies of various double dots suggest that the dot size is governed by the gate geometry. For the triple and quadruple dots, we study the gate-tunable inter-dot tunnel couplings. For the triple dot, we find that the effective tunnel coupling between side dots significantly depends on the alignment of the center dot potential. These results imply that the present quadruple dot has a gate performance relevant for implementing spin-based four-qubits with controllable exchange couplings.