We report on Coulomb blockade and Coulomb diamond measurements on an etched, tunable single-layer graphene quantum dot. The device consisting of a graphene island connected via two narrow graphene constrictions is fully tunable by three lateral graphene gates. Coulomb blockade resonances are observed and from Coulomb diamond measurements a charging energy of ~3.5 meV is extracted. For increasing temperatures we detect a peak broadening and a transmission increase of the nanostructured graphene barriers.
We study electron transport in nanostructures patterned in bilayer graphene patches grown epitaxially on SiC as a function of doping, magnetic field, and temperature. Away from charge neutrality transport is only weakly modulated by changes in carrier concentration induced by a local side-gate. At low n-type doping close to charge neutrality, electron transport resembles that in exfoliated graphene nanoribbons and is well described by tunnelling of single electrons through a network of Coulomb-blockaded islands. Under the influence of an external magnetic field, Coulomb blockade resonances fluctuate around an average energy and the gap shrinks as a function of magnetic field. At charge neutrality, however, conduction is less insensitive to external magnetic fields. In this regime we also observe a stronger suppression of the conductance below $T^*$, which we interpret as a sign of broken interlayer symmetry or strong fluctuations in the edge/potential disorder.
We propose that recent transport experiments revealing the existence of an energy gap in graphene nanoribbons may be understood in terms of Coulomb blockade. Electron interactions play a decisive role at the quantum dots which form due to the presence of necks arising from the roughness of the graphene edge. With the average transmission as the only fitting parameter, our theory shows good agreement with the experimental data.
We review the quantum interference effects in a system of interacting electrons confined to a quantum dot. The review starts with a description of an isolated quantum dot. We discuss the status of the Random Matrix theory (RMT) of the one-electron states in the dot, present the universal form of the interaction Hamiltonian compatible with the RMT, and derive the leading corrections to the universal interaction Hamiltonian. Next, we discuss a theoretical description of a dot connected to leads via point contacts. Having established the theoretical framework to describe such an open system, we discuss its transport and thermodynamic properties. We review the evolution of the transport properties with the increase of the contact conductances from small values to values $sim e^2/pihbar$. In the discussion of transport, the emphasis is put on mesoscopic fluctuations and the Kondo effect in the conductance.
Gate-tunable quantum-mechanical tunnelling of particles between a quantum confined state and a nearby Fermi reservoir of delocalized states has underpinned many advances in spintronics and solid-state quantum optics. The prototypical example is a semiconductor quantum dot separated from a gated contact by a tunnel barrier. This enables Coulomb blockade, the phenomenon whereby electrons or holes can be loaded one-by-one into a quantum dot. Depending on the tunnel-coupling strength, this capability facilitates single spin quantum bits or coherent many-body interactions between the confined spin and the Fermi reservoir. Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, in which a wide range of unique atomic layers can easily be combined, offer novel prospects to engineer coherent quantum confined spins, tunnel barriers down to the atomic limit or a Fermi reservoir beyond the conventional flat density of states. However, gate-control of vdW nanostructures at the single particle level is needed to unlock their potential. Here we report Coulomb blockade in a vdW heterostructure consisting of a transition metal dichalcogenide quantum dot coupled to a graphene contact through an atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) tunnel barrier. Thanks to a tunable Fermi reservoir, we can deterministically load either a single electron or a single hole into the quantum dot. We observe hybrid excitons, composed of localized quantum dot states and delocalized continuum states, arising from ultra-strong spin-conserving tunnel coupling through the atomically thin tunnel barrier. Probing the charged excitons in applied magnetic fields, we observe large gyromagnetic ratios (~8). Our results establish a foundation for engineering next-generation devices to investigate either novel regimes of Kondo physics or isolated quantum bits in a vdW heterostructure platform.
A tunable directional coupler based on Coulomb Blockade effect is presented. Two electron waveguides are coupled by a quantum dot to an injector waveguide. Electron confinement is obtained by surface Schottky gates on single GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction. Magneto-electrical measurements down to 350 mK are presented and large transconductance oscillations are reported on both outputs up to 4.2 K. Experimental results are interpreted in terms of Coulomb Blockade effect and the relevance of the present design strategy for the implementation of an electronic multiplexer is underlined.