No Arabic abstract
Quantum dot lattices (QDLs) have the potential to allow for the tailoring of optical, magnetic and electronic properties of a user-defined artificial solid. We use a dual gated device structure to controllably tune the potential landscape in a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas, thereby enabling the formation of a periodic QDL. The current-voltage characteristics, I(V), follow a power law, as expected for a QDL. In addition, a systematic study of the scaling behavior of I(V) allows us to probe the effects of background disorder on transport through the QDL. Our results are particularly important for semiconductor-based QDL architectures which aim to probe collective phenomena.
We investigate an electrostatically defined quantum point contact in a high-mobility InSb two-dimensional electron gas. Well-defined conductance plateaus are observed, and the subband structure of the quantum point contact is extracted from finite-bias measurements. The Zeeman splitting is measured in both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields. We find an in-plane g factor $|g_{parallel}^* | approx$ 40. The out-of-plane g factor is measured to be $|g_{perp}^* | approx$ 50, which is close to the g factor in the bulk.
In this work we use electrostatic control of quantum Hall ferromagnetic transitions in CdMnTe quantum wells to study electron transport through individual domain walls (DWs) induced at a specific location. These DWs are formed due to hybridization of two counter-propagating edge states with opposite spin polarization. Conduction through DWs is found to be symmetric under magnetic field direction reversal, consistent with the helical nature of these DWs. We observe that long domain walls are in the insulating regime with localization length 4 - 6~$mu$m. In shorter DWs the resistance saturates to a non-zero value at low temperatures. Mesoscopic resistance fluctuations in a magnetic field are investigated. The theoretical model of transport through impurity states within the gap induced by spin-orbit interactions agrees well with the experimental data. Helical DWs have required symmetry for the formation of synthetic p-wave superconductors. Achieved electrostatic control of a single helical domain wall is a milestone on the path to their reconfigurable network and ultimately to a demonstration of braiding of non-Abelian excitations.
We present a self-consistent Schroedinger-Poisson scheme for simulation of electrostatic quantum dots defined in gated two-dimensional electron gas formed at n-AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction. The computational method is applied to a quantitative description of transport properties studied experimentally by Elzermann et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. {bf 84}, 4617 (2004)]. The three-dimensional model describes the electrostatics of the entire device with a quantum dot that changes shape and floats inside a gated region when the applied voltages are varied. Our approach accounts for the metal electrodes of arbitrary geometry and configuration, includes magnetic field applied perpendicular to the growth direction, electron-electron correlation in the confined electron system and its interaction with the electron reservoir surrounding the quantum dot. We calculate the electric field, the space charge distribution as well as energies and wave functions of confined electrons to describe opening of two transport channels between the reservoir and the confined charge puddle. We determine the voltages for charging the dot with up to 4 electrons. The results are in a qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental data.
We present an electrostatically defined few-electron double quantum dot (QD) realized in a molecular beam epitaxy grown Si/SiGe heterostructure. Transport and charge spectroscopy with an additional QD as well as pulsed-gate measurements are demonstrated. We discuss technological challenges specific for silicon-based heterostructures and the effect of a comparably large effective electron mass on transport properties and tunability of the double QD. Charge noise, which might be intrinsically induced due to strain-engineering is proven not to affect the stable operation of our device as a spin qubit. Our results promise the suitability of electrostatically defined QDs in Si/SiGe heterostructures for quantum information processing.
Indium antimonide (InSb) two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) have a unique combination of material properties: high electron mobility, strong spin-orbit interaction, large Land{e} g-factor, and small effective mass. This makes them an attractive platform to explore a variety of mesoscopic phenomena ranging from spintronics to topological superconductivity. However, there exist limited studies of quantum confined systems in these 2DEGs, often attributed to charge instabilities and gate drifts. We overcome this by removing the $delta$-doping layer from the heterostructure, and induce carriers electrostatically. This allows us to perform the first detailed study of stable gate-defined quantum dots in InSb 2DEGs. We demonstrate two distinct strategies for carrier confinement and study the charge stability of the dots. The small effective mass results in a relatively large single particle spacing, allowing for the observation of an even-odd variation in the addition energy. By tracking the Coulomb oscillations in a parallel magnetic field we determine the ground state spin configuration and show that the large g-factor ($sim$30) results in a singlet-triplet transition at magnetic fields as low as 0.3 T.