A Reconfigurable Gate Architecture for Si/SiGe Quantum Dots

We demonstrate a reconfigurable quantum dot gate architecture that incorporates two interchangeable transport channels. One channel is used to form quantum dots and the other is used for charge sensing. The quantum dot transport channel can support either a single or a double quantum dot. We demonstrate few-electron occupation in a single quantum dot and extract charging energies as large as 6.6 meV. Magnetospectroscopy is used to measure valley splittings in the range of 35-70 microeV. By energizing two additional gates we form a few-electron double quantum dot and demonstrate tunable tunnel coupling at the (1,0) to (0,1) interdot charge transition.Comment: Related papers at http://pettagroup.princeton.ed

Scalable gate architecture for densely packed semiconductor spin qubits

We demonstrate a 12 quantum dot device fabricated on an undoped Si/SiGe heterostructure as a proof-of-concept for a scalable, linear gate architecture for semiconductor quantum dots. The device consists of 9 quantum dots in a linear array and 3 single quantum dot charge sensors. We show reproducible single quantum dot charging and orbital energies, with standard deviations less than 20% relative to the mean across the 9 dot array. The single quantum dot charge sensors have a charge sensitivity of 8.2 x 10^{-4} e/root(Hz) and allow the investigation of real-time charge dynamics. As a demonstration of the versatility of this device, we use single-shot readout to measure a spin relaxation time T1 = 170 ms at a magnetic field B = 1 T. By reconfiguring the device, we form two capacitively coupled double quantum dots and extract a mutual charging energy of 200 microeV, which indicates that 50 GHz two-qubit gate operation speeds are feasible

Investigation of Mobility Limiting Mechanisms in Undoped Si/SiGe Heterostructures

We perform detailed magnetotransport studies on two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) formed in undoped Si/SiGe heterostructures in order to identify the electron mobility limiting mechanisms in this increasingly important materials system. By analyzing data from 26 wafers with different heterostructure growth profiles we observe a strong correlation between the background oxygen concentration in the Si quantum well and the maximum mobility. The highest quality wafer supports a 2DEG with a mobility of 160,000 cm^2/Vs at a density 2.17 x 10^11/cm^2 and exhibits a metal-to-insulator transition at a critical density 0.46 x 10^11/cm^2. We extract a valley splitting of approximately 150 microeV at a magnetic field of 1.8 T. These results provide evidence that undoped Si/SiGe heterostructures are suitable for the fabrication of few-electron quantum dots.Comment: Related papers at http://pettagroup.princeton.ed

Social media actions and interactions: The role of the Facebook and Twitter during the 2014 European Parliament elections in the 28 EU nations.

Most political parties across the democratic sphere have created their own spaces within social media. While ostensibly studies show that social media is being utilized by political parties to further their electoral goals, the uses of their social media profiles by visitors is largely beyond official control without devoting significant resources to moderation. This study will be the first to gather data that allows us to detect patterns of participation within and potentially across nations, but in particular within nations and across parties to determine the extent that visitors use social media to promote parties (through liking and sharing) or for entering comments on party posts or for entering into discussions with other visitors. We specifically seek to understand whether we can detect evidence of a political ecosystem in which visitors visit multiple party profiles, enter debates across differing profiles and so contribute to something that might resemble an informed and engaged public sphere

Solitons and Black Holes in a Generalized Skyrme Model with Dilaton-Quarkonium field

Skyrme theory is among the viable effective theories which emerge from low-energy limit of quantum chromodynamics. Many of its generalizations include also a dilaton. Here we find new self-gravitating solutions, both solitons and black holes, in a Generalized Skyrme Model (GSM) in which a dilaton is present. The investigation of the properties of the solutions is done numerically. We find that the introduction of the dilaton in the theory does not change the picture qualitatively, only quantitatively. The model considered here has one free parameter more than the Einstein-Skyrme model which comes from the potential of the dilaton. We have applied also the turning point method to establish that one of the black-hole branches of solutions is unstable. The turning point method here is based on the first law of black-hole thermodynamics a detailed derivation of which is given in the Appendix of the paper.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures; v2: typos corrected, comments adde

Molecular Imaging of Petroleum Asphaltenes by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Verification of Structure from 13C and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Data

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to verify the molecular structure of Maya asphaltene which had been derived from combined 13C and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. Petroleum asphaltenes are known to contain large polynuclear aromatic centers with aliphatic sidechains. Average molecular models of Maya asphaltenes were derived using studies which included combined proton and 13C NMR data to determine total aromatic carbon content and the ratio of peripheral to internal aromatic ring carbons. These parameters permitted estimating the average number of aromatic rings per condensed cluster. These Maya asphaltenes were imaged by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in a dilute solution of tetrahydrofuran on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The sizes and structures of the asphaltenes as observed by STM are in reasonable agreement with these average molecular models. We observed asymmetric structures whose largest dimension averaged 10.4 Å ± 1.9 Å from 24 separate images. The condensed ring portions of three representative NMR derived molecular models yielded an average dimension of 11.1 Å ± 1.4 Å

Effect of Mn and Mg dopants on vacancy defect formation in ammonothermal GaN

We have applied positron annihilation spectroscopy to study the formation of Ga vacancy related defects in Mg and Mn doped bulk GaN crystals grown by the ammonothermal method. We show that Mn doping has little or no effect on the formation of Ga vacancies, while Mg doping strongly suppresses their formation, in spite of both dopants leading to highly resistive material. We suggest the differences are primarily due to the hydrogen-dopant interactions. Further investigations are called for to draw a detailed picture of the atomic scale phe-nomena in the synthesis of ammonothermal GaN.Peer reviewe