S. P. Giblin

Towards a quantum representation of the ampere using single electron pumps

Electron pumps generate a macroscopic electric current by controlled manipulation of single electrons. Despite intensive research towards a quantum current standard over the last 25 years, making a fast and accurate quantized electron pump has proved extremely difficult. Here we demonstrate that the accuracy of a semiconductor quantum dot pump can be dramatically improved by using specially designed gate drive waveforms. Our pump can generate a current of up to 150 pA, corresponding to almost a billion electrons per second, with an experimentally demonstrated current accuracy better than 1.2 parts per million (p.p.m.) and strong evidence, based on fitting data to a model, that the true accuracy is approaching 0.01 p.p.m. This type of pump is a promising candidate for further development as a realization of the SI base unit ampere, following a redefinition of the ampere in terms of a fixed value of the elementary charge.

Clock-controlled emission of single-electron wave packets in a solid-state circuit.

We demonstrate the energy- and time-resolved detection of single-electron wave packets from a clock-controlled source transmitted through a high-energy quantum Hall edge channel. A quantum dot source is loaded with single electrons which are then emitted ~150 meV above the Fermi energy. The energy spectroscopy of emitted electrons indicates that at high magnetic field these electrons can be transported over several microns without inelastic electron-electron or electron-phonon scattering. Using a time-resolved spectroscopic technique, we deduce the wave packet size at picosecond resolution. We also show how this technique can be used to switch individual electrons into different electron waveguides (edge channels).

The European ACQHE project: modular system for the calibration of capacitance standards based on the quantum Hall effect

Starting in 1998 a project funded by the European Commission has been carried out in a co-operation of seven partners. The aim of this project was to establish a measurement system which allows the calibration of standard capacitors in terms of R/sub K-90/. The whole system comprises suitable quantum Hall samples, an automated bridge system and auxiliary devices to calibrate and characterize the whole set-up. The uncertainty for the calibration of a 10-pF capacitor is about 1 part in 10/sup 7/.

Automation of a Coaxial Bridge for Calibration of AC Resistors

An automated coaxial ac resistance bridge has been constructed, and a balance algorithm has been developed. The bridge automates the repetitive task of calibrating ac/dc standard resistors at multiple frequencies. Results are presented for the frequency-dependent ratio of commercially available 100-Omega and 1-kOmega2 resistors

Frequency dependence of gas-dielectric capacitors used in sub-nA reference current generators

We measure the frequency dependence of a sample of commercial air- and gas-dielectric capacitors between 1 kHz and ≈0.01 Hz. We find that the capacitance of sealed-gas capacitors can change by more than 100 µF/F over this range. This has important implications for the use of gas capacitors in reference sub-nA current generators.

Sensitive detector for a passive terahertz imager

We report progress in developing a sensitive detector for terahertz radiation, based on a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) capacitively coupled to a metallic single electron transistor (SET). A charge polarization of the QD induced by the absorption of individual photons is detected by the voltage-biased SET. We investigate the sensitivity of the detector to broadband radiation, over a range of QD barrier heights, and find that there is a measurable photo-signal over wide range of gate voltages defining the QD. This is an improvement on previous designs of terahertz detector based on the QD/SET principle, and makes the new detector a candidate for use in an imaging device.

A Highly Sensitive Detector for Radiation in the Terahertz Region

In this paper, we report progress in the development of a detector for photons in the terahertz region consisting of a lateral quantum dot (QD), defined in a semiconductor heterostructure by mesa patterning and three negatively biased metallic gates, and a single-electron transistor (SET) on top of the mesa and, hence, capacitively coupled to the QD. We study the behavior of the QD as a function of the potential applied to the gates using the SET as a sensitive charge detector and identify the bias region of the device, where it is sensitive to incident terahertz radiation. The QD converts incident photons into charge excitations, which can be detected by the SET, resulting in a signal of the order 10 8 electrons for each absorbed photon. Based on the dark count rate and an estimate of the quantum efficiency, the detector should enable low-power measurements in the terahertz region with noise-equivalent power ~10-19 W/Hz1/2 exceeding the sensitivity of commercially available bolometers by two orders of magnitude

High-resolution error detection in the capture process of a single-electron pump

The dynamic capture of electrons in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) by raising a potential barrier is a crucial stage in metrological quantized charge pumping. In this work, we use a quantum point contact (QPC) charge sensor to study errors in the electron capture process of a QD formed in a GaAs heterostructure. Using a two-step measurement protocol to compensate for 1/f noise in the QPC current, and repeating the protocol more than 106 times, we are able to resolve errors with probabilities of order 10−6. For the studied sample, one-electron capture is affected by errors in ∼30 out of every million cycles, while two-electron capture was performed more than 106 times with only one error. For errors in one-electron capture, we detect both failure to capture an electron and capture of two electrons. Electron counting measurements are a valuable tool for investigating non-equilibrium charge capture dynamics, and necessary for validating the metrological accuracy of semiconductor electron pumps.

Rectification in mesoscopic alternating current-gated semiconductor devices

We analyse the rectified dc currents resulting when a three-terminal semiconductor device with gate-dependent conductance is driven with an ac gate voltage. The rectified currents exhibit surprisingly complex behaviour as the dc source-drain bias voltage, the dc gate voltage, and the amplitude of the ac gate voltage are varied. We obtain good agreement between our data and a model based on simple assumptions about the stray impedances on the sample chip, over a wide frequency range. Secondly, we evaluate the small rectified currents flowing in tunable-barrier electron pumps operated in the pinched-off regime. These currents are at most 10−12 of the pumped current for a pump current of 100 pA. This result is encouraging for the development of tunable-barrier pumps as metrological current standards. Our method is applicable to many types of experiment which involve ac gating of a non-linear device, and where an undesirable rectified contribution to the measured signal is present.

Single- and few-electron dynamic quantum dots in a perpendicular magnetic field

We present experimental studies of the current pumped through a dynamic quantum dot over a wide range of magnetic fields. At low fields we observe a repeatable structure indicating increased confinement of the electrons in the dynamic dot. At higher fields (B>5T), we observe a structure which changes markedly from device to device suggesting that in this regime the transport is sensitive to local disorder. The results are significant for the development of dynamic quantum dot pumps as quantum standards of electrical current.