Henok Mebrahtu

Determining star-image location: A new sub-pixel interpolation technique to process image centroids

We develop a theoretical methodology to estimate the location of star centroids in images recorded by CCD and active pixel sensors. The approach may be generalized to other applications were point-sources must be located with high accuracy. In contrast with other approaches, our technique is suitable for use with non-100% fill ratio sensors. The approach is applied experimentally to two camera systems employing sensors with fill-ratios of approximately 50%. We describe experimental approaches to implement the new paradigm and characterize centroid performance using laboratory targets and against real night-sky images. Applied to a conventional CCD camera, a centroid performance of 11.6 times the raw pixel resolution is achieved. Applied to a camera employing an active-pixel sensor a performance of 12.8 is demonstrated. The approach enables the rapid development of autonomous star-camera systems without the extensive characterizations required to derive polynomic fitting coefficients employed by traditional centroid algorithms.

Single-electron transistors made by chemical patterning of silicon dioxide substrates and selective deposition of gold nanoparticles

We describe a method to pattern SiO2 surfaces with colloidal gold nanoparticles by e-beam lithography and selective nanoparticle deposition. The simple technique allows us to deposit nanoparticles in continuous straight lines, just one nanoparticle wide and many nanoparticles long. We contact the prepositioned nanoparticles with metal leads to form single electron transistors. The Coulomb blockade pattern surprisingly does not show the parasitic “offset charges” at low temperatures, indicating relatively little surface contamination.

Quantum phase transition in a resonant level coupled to interacting leads

A Luttinger liquid is an interacting one-dimensional electronic system, quite distinct from the ‘conventional’ Fermi liquids formed by interacting electrons in two and three dimensions. Some of the most striking properties of Luttinger liquids are revealed in the process of electron tunnelling. For example, as a function of the applied bias voltage or temperature, the tunnelling current exhibits a non-trivial power-law suppression. (There is no such suppression in a conventional Fermi liquid.) Here, using a carbon nanotube connected to resistive leads, we create a system that emulates tunnelling in a Luttinger liquid, by controlling the interaction of the tunnelling electron with its environment. We further replace a single tunnelling barrier with a double-barrier, resonant-level structure and investigate resonant tunnelling between Luttinger liquids. At low temperatures, we observe perfect transparency of the resonant level embedded in the interacting environment, and the width of the resonance tends to zero. We argue that this behaviour results from many-body physics of interacting electrons, and signals the presence of a quantum phase transition. Given that many parameters, including the interaction strength, can be precisely controlled in our samples, this is an attractive model system for studying quantum critical phenomena in general, with wide-reaching implications for understanding quantum phase transitions in more complex systems, such as cold atoms and strongly correlated bulk materials.

Observation of Majorana quantum critical behaviour in a resonant level coupled to a dissipative environment

A quantum critical point associated with a carbon nanotube quantum dot that is in contact with dissipative leads exhibits striking non-Fermi-liquid properties and anomalous scaling. The dissipative environment enables the comparison of the system under thermal- and non-equilibrium conditions.

Phonon Bottleneck in Graphene-Based Josephson Junctions at Millikelvin Temperatures

We examine the nature of the transitions between the normal and superconducting branches in superconductor-graphene-superconductor Josephson junctions. We attribute the hysteresis between the switching (superconducting to normal) and retrapping (normal to superconducting) transitions to electron overheating. In particular, we demonstrate that the retrapping current corresponds to the critical current at an elevated temperature, where the heating is caused by the retrapping current itself. The superconducting gap in the leads suppresses the hot electron outflow, allowing us to further study electron thermalization by phonons at low temperatures (T≲1 K). The relationship between the applied power and the electron temperature was found to be P∝T3, which we argue is consistent with cooling due to electron-phonon interactions.

Resonant tunneling in a dissipative environment

We measure tunneling through a single quantum level in a carbon nanotube quantum dot connected to resistive metal leads. For the electrons tunneling to/from the nanotube, the leads serve as a dissipative environment, which suppresses the tunneling rate. In the regime of sequential tunneling, the height of the single-electron conductance peaks increases as the temperature is lowered, although it scales more weekly than the conventional 1/T. In the resonant tunneling regime (temperature smaller than the level width), the peak width approaches saturation, while the peak height starts to decrease. Overall, the peak height shows a non-monotonic temperature dependence. We associate this unusual behavior with the transition from the sequential to the resonant tunneling through a single quantum level in a dissipative environment.

Heavy ion radiation damage simulations for CMOS image sensors

Damage in CMOS image sensors caused by heavy ions with moderate energy (~10MeV) are discussed through the effects on transistors and photodiodes. SRIM (stopping and range of ions in matter) simulation results of heavy ion radiation damage to CMOS image sensors implemented with standard 0.35μm and 0.18μm technologies are presented. Total ionizing dose, displacement damage and single event damage are described in the context of the simulation. It is shown that heavy ions with an energy in the order of 10 MeV cause significant total ionizing dose and displacement damage around the active region in 0.35μm technology, but reduced effects in 0.18μm technology. The peak of displacement damage moves into the substrate with increasing ion energy. The effect of layer structure in the 0.18 and 0.35 micron technologies on heavy ion damage is also described.

SPICE Models of Fluorine-Ion-Irradiated CMOS Devices

CMOS image sensors are attractive for space applications due to their low-power and system-on-chip features. The typical active pixel sensor (APS) is composed of a photodiode and several transistors. Using Fluorine +7 ions with an energy of 17 MeV, the effects of radiation are investigated on photodiodes and transistors manufactured using a standard 0.35-mum CMOS process. Simulation results show that the range of these ions overlaps with the active region of the device. Thus, the proximity effect of the ions on the performance of the device can be important. The tested photodiode showed a leakage current increase after it was irradiated with fluorine ions. The ideality factor of recombination current is observed to increase up to 4. Moreover, an increase in leakage current and absolute threshold voltage was observed in fluorine-ion-irradiated nMOS and pMOS transistors. In this paper, behavioral SPICE models are developed to analyze the contribution of these components to an overall increase in dark current of a CMOS APS.

Observation of Unitary Conductance for Resonant Tunneling with Dissipation

We investigate tunneling through a resonant level formed in a carbon nanotube quantum dot contacted by resistive metal wires. These contacts create a dissipative environment for the electrons tunneling across the nanotube, thus suppressing the tunneling rate. We study the shape of the resonant peak in the nanotube conductance, with the expectation that the peak width and height, both dependent on the tunneling rate, will be suppressed. Instead, we find that the behavior crucially depends on the ratio of the tunneling rates from the resonant level to the two contacts. We discuss the implication of our findings for a boundary quantum phase transition in this system.