Universal decay cascade model for dynamic quantum dot initialization

Dynamic quantum dots can be formed by time-dependent electrostatic potentials in nanoelectronic devices, such as gate- or surface-acoustic-wave-driven electron pumps. Ability to control the number of captured electrons with high precision is required for applications in fundamental metrology and quantum information processing. In this work we propose and quantify a scheme to initialize quantum dots with a controllable number of electrons. It is based on the stochastic decrease in the electron number of a shrinking dynamic quantum dot and is described by a nuclear decay cascade model with "isotopes" being different charge states of the dot. Unlike the natural nuclei, the artificial confinement is time-dependent and tunable, so the probability distribution for the final "stable isotopes" depends on the external gate voltage. We derive an explicit fitting formula to extract the sequence of decay rate ratios from the measurements of averaged current in a periodically driven device. This provides a device-specific fingerprint which allows to compare different devices and architectures, and predict the upper limits of initialization accuracy from low precision measurements.Comment: 4 pages; more general derivation, new figure on

Integrated quantized electronics: a semiconductor quantized voltage source

The Josephson effect in superconductors links a quantized output voltage Vout = f \cdot(h/2e) to the natural constants of the electron's charge e, Planck's constant h, and to an excitation frequency f with important applications in electrical quantum metrology. Also semiconductors are routinely applied in electrical quantum metrology making use of the quantum Hall effect. However, despite their broad range of further applications e.g. in integrated circuits, quantized voltage generation by a semiconductor device has never been obtained. Here we report a semiconductor quantized voltage source generating quantized voltages Vout = f\cdot(h/e). It is based on an integrated quantized circuit of a single electron pump operated at pumping frequency f and a quantum Hall device monolithically integrated in series. The output voltages of several \muV are expected to be scalable by orders of magnitude using present technology. The device might open a new route towards the closure of the quantum metrological triangle. Furthermore it represents a universal electrical quantum reference allowing to generate quantized values of the three most relevant electrical units of voltage, current, and resistance based on fundamental constants using a single device.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

A quantized current source with mesoscopic feedback

We study a mesoscopic circuit of two quantized current sources, realized by non-adiabatic single- electron pumps connected in series with a small micron-sized island in between. We find that quantum transport through the second pump can be locked onto the quantized current of the first one by a feedback due to charging of the mesoscopic island. This is confirmed by a measurement of the charge variation on the island using a nearby charge detector. Finally, the charge feedback signal clearly evidences loading into excited states of the dynamic quantum dot during single-electron pump operation

Controlling the error mechanism in a tunable-barrier non-adiabatic charge pump by dynamic gate compensation

Single-electron pumps based on tunable-barrier quantum dots are the most promising candidates for a direct realization of the unit ampere in the recently revised SI: they are simple to operate and show high precision at high operation frequencies. The current understanding of the residual transfer errors at low temperature is based on the evaluation of backtunneling effects in the decay cascade model. This model predicts a strong dependence on the ratio of the time dependent changes in the quantum dot energy and the tunneling barrier transparency. Here we employ a two-gate operation scheme to verify this prediction and to demonstrate control of the backtunneling error. We derive and experimentally verify a quantitative prediction for the error suppression, thereby confirming the basic assumptions of the backtunneling (decay cascade) model. Furthermore, we demonstrate a controlled transition from the backtunneling dominated regime into the thermal (sudden decoupling) error regime. The suppression of transfer errors by several orders of magnitude at zero magnetic field was additionally verified by a sub-ppm precision measurement