We study a graphene double quantum dot in different coupling regimes. Despite the strong capacitive coupling between the dots, the tunnel coupling is below the experimental resolution. We observe additional structures inside the finite-bias triangles, part of which can be attributed to electronic excited dot states, while others are probably due to modulations of the transmission of the tunnel barriers connecting the system to source and drain leads.
We demonstrate that excited states in single-layer graphene quantum dots can be detected via direct transport experiments. Coulomb diamond measurements show distinct features of sequential tunneling through an excited state. Moreover, the onset of inelastic cotunneling in the diamond region could be detected. For low magnetic fields, the positions of the single-particle energy levels fluctuate on the scale of a flux quantum penetrating the dot area. For higher magnetic fields, the transition to the formation of Landau levels is observed. Estimates based on the linear energy-momentum relation of graphene give carrier numbers of the order of 10 for our device.
A quantum dot fabricated by scanning probe oxidation lithography on a p-type, C-doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure is investigated by low temperature electrical conductance measurements. Clear Coulomb blockade oscillations are observed and analyzed in terms of sequential tunneling through the single-particle levels of the dot at T_hole = 185 mK. The charging energies as large as 2 meV evaluated from Coulomb diamond measurements together with the well resolved single-hole excited state lines in the charge stability diagram indicate that the dot is operated with a small number of confined particles close to the ultimate single-hole regime.
As an application in circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) coupled systems, superconducting resonators play an important role in high-sensitivity measurements in a superconductingsemiconductor hybrid architecture. Taking advantage of a high-impedance NbTiN resonator, we perform excited-state spectroscopy on a GaAs double quantum dot (DQD) by applying voltage pulses to one gate electrode. The pulse train modulates the DQD energy detuning and gives rise to charge state transitions at zero detuning. Benefiting from the outstanding sensitivity of the resonator, we distinguish different spin-state transitions in the energy spectrum according to the Pauli exclusion principle. Furthermore, we experimentally study how the interdot tunneling rate modifies the resonator response. The experimental results are consistent with the simulated spectra based on our model.
We report on ground- and excited state transport through an electrostatically defined few-hole quantum dot in bilayer graphene in both parallel and perpendicular applied magnetic fields. A remarkably clear level scheme for the two-particle spectra is found by analyzing finite bias spectroscopy data within a two-particle model including spin and valley degrees of freedom. We identify the two-hole ground-state to be a spin-triplet and valley-singlet state. This spin alignment can be seen as Hunds rule for a valley-degenerate system, which is fundamentally different to quantum dots in carbon nano tubes and GaAs-based quantum dots. The spin-singlet excited states are found to be valley-triplet states by tilting the magnetic field with respect to the sample plane. We quantify the exchange energy to be 0.35meV and measure a valley and spin g-factor of 36 and 2, respectively.
We investigate coherent time-evolution of charge states (pseudo-spin qubit) in a semiconductor double quantum dot. This fully-tunable qubit is manipulated with a high-speed voltage pulse that controls the energy and decoherence of the system. Coherent oscillations of the qubit are observed for several combinations of many-body ground and excited states of the quantum dots. Possible decoherence mechanisms in the present device are also discussed.