Three-waveform bidirectional pumping of single electrons with a silicon quantum dot

Abstract

Semiconductor-based quantum dot single-electron pumps are currently the most promising candidates for the direct realization of the emerging quantum standard of the ampere in the International System of Units. Here, we discuss a silicon quantum dot single-electron pump with radio frequency control over the transparencies of entrance and exit barriers as well as the dot potential. We show that our driving protocol leads to robust bidirectional pumping: one can conveniently reverse the direction of the quantized current by changing only the phase shift of one driving waveform with respect to the others. We anticipate that this pumping technique may be used in the future to perform error counting experiments by pumping the electrons into and out of a reservoir island monitored by a charge sensor.The financial support from the Centre of Excellence in Computational Nanoscience (project 284621 and 251748) by the Academy of Finland (Grant Nos 251748, 135794, 272806, and 276528), the Australian Research Council (Grant Nos DP120104710 and DP160104923), Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility are acknowledged. A. R. thanks the University of New South Wales Early Career Research Grant scheme for financial support. We acknowledge the provision of facilities and technical support by Aalto University at Micronova Nanofabrication Centre

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