Probing the Quantum States of a Single Atom Transistor at Microwave Frequencies

Atomically Precise Manufacturing of Silicon Electronics

Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) is a key technique that involves the direct control of atoms in order to manufacture products or components of products. It has been developed most successfully using scanning probe methods and has received particular attention for developing atom scale electronics with a focus on silicon-based systems. This review captures the development of silicon atom-based electronics and is divided into several sections that will cover characterization and atom manipulation of silicon surfaces with scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy, development of silicon dangling bonds as atomic quantum dots, creation of atom scale devices, and the wiring and packaging of those circuits. The review will also cover the advance of silicon dangling bond logic design and the progress of silicon quantum atomic designer (SiQAD) simulators. Finally, an outlook of APM and silicon atom electronics will be provided.

Unusual Quantum Transport Mechanisms in Silicon Nano-Devices

Silicon-based materials have been the leading platforms for the development of classical information science and are now one of the major contenders for future developments in the field of quantum information science. In this short review paper, while discussing only some examples, I will describe how silicon Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) compatible materials have been able to provide platforms for the observation of some of the most unusual transport phenomena in condensed matter physics.

AC signal characterization for optimization of a CMOS single-electron pump

Pumping single electrons at a set rate is being widely pursued as an electrical current standard. Semiconductor charge pumps have been pursued in a variety of modes, including single gate ratchet, a variety of 2-gate ratchet pumps, and 2-gate turnstiles. Whether pumping with one or two AC signals, lower error rates can result from better knowledge of the properties of the AC signal at the device. In this work, we operated a CMOS single-electron pump with a 2-gate ratchet style measurement and used the results to characterize and optimize our two AC signals. Fitting this data at various frequencies revealed both a difference in signal path length and attenuation between our two AC lines. Using this data, we corrected for the difference in signal path length and attenuation by applying an offset in both the phase and the amplitude at the signal generator. Operating the device as a turnstile while using the optimized parameters determined from the 2-gate ratchet measurement led to much flatter, more robust charge pumping plateaus. This method was useful in tuning our device up for optimal charge pumping, and may prove useful to the semiconductor quantum dot community to determine signal attenuation and path differences at the device.

Atom-by-Atom Construction of a Quantum Device

Scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs) are conventionally used to probe surfaces with atomic resolution. Recent advances in STM include tunneling from spin-polarized and superconducting tips, time-domain spectroscopy, and the fabrication of atomically precise Si nanoelectronics. In this issue of ACS Nano, Tettamanzi et al. probe a single-atom transistor in silicon, fabricated using the precision of a STM, at microwave frequencies. While previous studies have probed such devices in the MHz regime, Tettamanzi et al. probe a STM-fabricated device at GHz frequencies, which enables excited-state spectroscopy and measurements of the excited-state lifetime. The success of this experiment will enable future work on quantum control, where the wave function must be controlled on a time scale that is much shorter than the decoherence time. We review two major approaches that are being pursued to develop spin-based quantum computers and highlight some recent progress in the atom-by-atom fabrication of donor-based devices in silicon. Recent advances in STM lithography may enable practical bottom-up construction of large-scale quantum devices.