Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1809.10249

Error detection in a tunable-barrier electron pump

S. P. Giblin, Patrick See, J. D. Fletcher, T. J. B. M. Janssen, Jonathan P. Griffiths, G. A. C. Jones, Ian A. Farrer, M. Kataoka

Published Sep 26, 2018• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We measure the average number of electrons loaded into an electrostatically-defined quantum dot (QD) operated as a tunable-barrier electron pump, using a point-contact (PC) charge sensor 1 micron away from the QD. The measurement of the electron number probes the QD loading dynamics even in the limit of slow gate voltage rise-times, when the pumped current is too small to measure. Using simulations we show that, with optimised QD-PC coupling, the experiment can make single-shot measurements of the number of electrons in the QD with sufficiently high fidelity to test the error rate of the electron pump with metrological precision.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1809.10249

Related papers

High-resolution error detection in the capture process of a single-electron pump

S. P. Giblin, Patrick See, Petrie, A. +6 more

The dynamic capture of electrons in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) by raising a potential \nbarrier is a crucial stage in metrological quantized charge pumping. In this work, we use a quantum \npoint contact (QPC) charge sensor to study errors in the electron capture process of a QD formed in \na GaAs heterostructure. Using a two-step measurement protocol to compensate for 1/f noise in the \nQPC current, and repeating the protocol more than 106 times, we are able to resolve errors with \nprobabilities of order 106. For the studied sample, one-electron capture is affected by errors in \n30 out of every million cycles, while two-electron capture was performed more than 106 times \nwith only one error. For errors in one-electron capture, we detect both failure to capture an electron \nand capture of two electrons. Electron counting measurements are a valuable tool for investigating \nnon-equilibrium charge capture dynamics, and necessary for validating the metrological accuracy \nof semiconductor electron pumps.

•Jan 11, 2016•8 citations

High-resolution error detection in the capture process of a single-electron pump

S. P. Giblin, P. See, A. Petrie +6 more

The dynamic capture of electrons in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) by raising a potential barrier is a crucial stage in metrological quantized charge pumping. In this work, we use a quantum point contact (QPC) charge sensor to study errors in the electron capture process of a QD formed in a GaAs heterostructure. Using a two-step measurement protocol to compensate for 1/f noise in the QPC current, and repeating the protocol more than 106 times, we are able to resolve errors with probabilities of order 10−6. For the studied sample, one-electron capture is affected by errors in ∼30 out of every million cycles, while two-electron capture was performed more than 106 times with only one error. For errors in one-electron capture, we detect both failure to capture an electron and capture of two electrons. Electron counting measurements are a valuable tool for investigating non-equilibrium charge capture dynamics, and necessary for validating the metrological accuracy of semiconductor electron pumps.

arXiv:1809.10081•Applied Physics Letters•Jan 11, 2016•18 citations

Energy-filtered readout preserves gap-enhanced sensing in interacting quantum dots

Shirwan Abdullah

A small excitation gap makes a quantum dot a sensitive probe of a weak electric field, but the charge detector that reads the probe can also excite it. We ask how much of this gap enhancement survives continuous readout, for two interacting electrons tuned through a confinement-driven crossover in a gate-defined quantum dot, using a weak-coupling, stationary two-level model. The answer depends on the energy structure of the detector, not only on its noise. A quantum point contact measures more strongly at higher bias, but once the bias energy exceeds the gap it also excites the probe. When this back-action dominates the probe's own relaxation, the optimised mean-current information rate grows only as the inverse of the gap. A sensor quantum dot with a narrow level instead reaches full measurement strength at a bias below the gap, where, for a non-interacting detector and to second order in the coupling, it cannot excite the probe at zero temperature. This energy-filtered readout keeps the inverse-square gap dependence of the quantum Fisher information, down to a gap set by the detector's level width and the electron temperature. Through such a detector the interacting pair gives about three times the information rate of a single electron with the same gap and detector, compared with 1.6-1.7 in the quantum Fisher information, for both contact and Coulomb-type interactions. These different gap dependences, and the different optimal biases of the two detectors, can be tested by bias and gate sweeps on suitably tuned charge-sensed double dots.

quant-pharXiv:2610.04063•Oct 6, 2026•0 citations

Gigahertz Single-Electron Pumping Mediated by Parasitic States

Alessandro Rossi, Jevgeny Klochan, Janis Timoshenko +6 more

In quantum metrology, semiconductor single-electron pumps are used to generate accurate electric currents with the ultimate goal of implementing the emerging quantum standard of the ampere. Pumps based on electrostatically defined tunable quantum dots (QDs) have thus far shown the most promising performance in combining fast and accurate charge transfer. However, at frequencies exceeding approximately 1 GHz the accuracy typically decreases. Recently, hybrid pumps based on QDs coupled to trap states have led to increased transfer rates due to tighter electrostatic confinement. Here, we operate a hybrid electron pump in silicon obtained by coupling a QD to multiple parasitic states and achieve robust current quantization up to a few gigahertz. We show that the fidelity of the electron capture depends on the sequence in which the parasitic states become available for loading, resulting in distinctive frequency-dependent features in the pumped current.

arXiv:1803.00791•Nano Letters•Jun 19, 2018•14 citations

Thermal-Error Regime in High-Accuracy Gigahertz Single-Electron Pumping

Ruichen Zhao, Alessandro Rossi, S. P. Giblin +5 more

Single-electron pumps based on quantum dots (QDs) with tunable barriers are promising candidates for the emerging quantum standard of electrical current, but accuracy at elevated reservoir temperatures can be challenging. In this study, a planar silicon QD achieves accurate, high-speed single-electron pumping in the thermal regime, where reservoir temperature could rise to a few kelvin. This device operates without the demanding conditions of previous experiments, indicating that it could deliver a cost-effective and easily distributed standard of current---and, furthermore, could be useful for long-range transfer of quantum information.

arXiv:1703.04795•Physical Review Applied•Oct 30, 2017•47 citations

Real-time electron counting studies on charge fluctuations in a semiconductor quantum dot (Invited Paper)

Wei Dong Lu

We present time-domain electron counting studies on charge fluctuations in a mesoscopic system. In this measurement, a radio-frequency single-electron transistor (RF-SET) acting as a fast electrometer is capacitively coupled to a quantum dot (QD) electrostatically defined in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. Random telegraph signals (RTSs) were observed on the RF-SET and were interpreted as resulting from individual electrons tunneling into/out of the QD hence switching the QD charge state between N and N+1 electrons near the charge degeneracy point. Periodic behavior of the switching events is observed as the number of average electrons in the electron box is decreased one by one. The occupation time of the excess electron is directly measured and changes from a few microseconds to a few milliseconds as the tunneling resistance of the QD is increased. Histogram of the occupation time obtained from the time-domain electron counting measurements agrees well with the frequency-domain power spectrum analysis, both suggesting a Poissonian process at the charge degenerate point, in agreement with a model consisting of two charge states. Real time electron counting techniques can play a powerful role in studies on temporal electronic correlations, as well as quantum information processing schemes. Techniques that will improve the charge sensitivity of the RF-SET will also be discussed.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 23, 2005•0 citations
We measure the average number of electrons loaded into an electrostatically-defined quantum dot (QD) operated as a tunable-barrier electron pump, using a point-contact (PC) charge sensor 1 micron away from the QD. The measurement of the electron number probes the QD loading dynamics even in the limit of slow gate voltage rise-times, when the pumped current is too small to measure. Using simulations we show that, with optimised QD-PC coupling, the experiment can make single-shot measurements of the number of electrons in the QD with sufficiently high fidelity to test the error rate of the electron pump with metrological precision.
The dynamic capture of electrons in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) by raising a potential \nbarrier is a crucial stage in metrological quantized charge pumping. In this work, we use a quantum \npoint contact (QPC) charge sensor to study errors in the electron capture process of a QD formed in \na GaAs heterostructure. Using a two-step measurement protocol to compensate for 1/f noise in the \nQPC current, and repeating the protocol more than 106 times, we are able to resolve errors with \nprobabilities of order 106. For the studied sample, one-electron capture is affected by errors in \n30 out of every million cycles, while two-electron capture was performed more than 106 times \nwith only one error. For errors in one-electron capture, we detect both failure to capture an electron \nand capture of two electrons. Electron counting measurements are a valuable tool for investigating \nnon-equilibrium charge capture dynamics, and necessary for validating the metrological accuracy \nof semiconductor electron pumps.
The dynamic capture of electrons in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) by raising a potential barrier is a crucial stage in metrological quantized charge pumping. In this work, we use a quantum point contact (QPC) charge sensor to study errors in the electron capture process of a QD formed in a GaAs heterostructure. Using a two-step measurement protocol to compensate for 1/f noise in the QPC current, and repeating the protocol more than 106 times, we are able to resolve errors with probabilities of order 10−6. For the studied sample, one-electron capture is affected by errors in ∼30 out of every million cycles, while two-electron capture was performed more than 106 times with only one error. For errors in one-electron capture, we detect both failure to capture an electron and capture of two electrons. Electron counting measurements are a valuable tool for investigating non-equilibrium charge capture dynamics, and necessary for validating the metrological accuracy of semiconductor electron pumps.
A small excitation gap makes a quantum dot a sensitive probe of a weak electric field, but the charge detector that reads the probe can also excite it. We ask how much of this gap enhancement survives continuous readout, for two interacting electrons tuned through a confinement-driven crossover in a gate-defined quantum dot, using a weak-coupling, stationary two-level model. The answer depends on the energy structure of the detector, not only on its noise. A quantum point contact measures more strongly at higher bias, but once the bias energy exceeds the gap it also excites the probe. When this back-action dominates the probe's own relaxation, the optimised mean-current information rate grows only as the inverse of the gap. A sensor quantum dot with a narrow level instead reaches full measurement strength at a bias below the gap, where, for a non-interacting detector and to second order in the coupling, it cannot excite the probe at zero temperature. This energy-filtered readout keeps the inverse-square gap dependence of the quantum Fisher information, down to a gap set by the detector's level width and the electron temperature. Through such a detector the interacting pair gives about three times the information rate of a single electron with the same gap and detector, compared with 1.6-1.7 in the quantum Fisher information, for both contact and Coulomb-type interactions. These different gap dependences, and the different optimal biases of the two detectors, can be tested by bias and gate sweeps on suitably tuned charge-sensed double dots.
In quantum metrology, semiconductor single-electron pumps are used to generate accurate electric currents with the ultimate goal of implementing the emerging quantum standard of the ampere. Pumps based on electrostatically defined tunable quantum dots (QDs) have thus far shown the most promising performance in combining fast and accurate charge transfer. However, at frequencies exceeding approximately 1 GHz the accuracy typically decreases. Recently, hybrid pumps based on QDs coupled to trap states have led to increased transfer rates due to tighter electrostatic confinement. Here, we operate a hybrid electron pump in silicon obtained by coupling a QD to multiple parasitic states and achieve robust current quantization up to a few gigahertz. We show that the fidelity of the electron capture depends on the sequence in which the parasitic states become available for loading, resulting in distinctive frequency-dependent features in the pumped current.
Single-electron pumps based on quantum dots (QDs) with tunable barriers are promising candidates for the emerging quantum standard of electrical current, but accuracy at elevated reservoir temperatures can be challenging. In this study, a planar silicon QD achieves accurate, high-speed single-electron pumping in the thermal regime, where reservoir temperature could rise to a few kelvin. This device operates without the demanding conditions of previous experiments, indicating that it could deliver a cost-effective and easily distributed standard of current---and, furthermore, could be useful for long-range transfer of quantum information.
We present time-domain electron counting studies on charge fluctuations in a mesoscopic system. In this measurement, a radio-frequency single-electron transistor (RF-SET) acting as a fast electrometer is capacitively coupled to a quantum dot (QD) electrostatically defined in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. Random telegraph signals (RTSs) were observed on the RF-SET and were interpreted as resulting from individual electrons tunneling into/out of the QD hence switching the QD charge state between N and N+1 electrons near the charge degeneracy point. Periodic behavior of the switching events is observed as the number of average electrons in the electron box is decreased one by one. The occupation time of the excess electron is directly measured and changes from a few microseconds to a few milliseconds as the tunneling resistance of the QD is increased. Histogram of the occupation time obtained from the time-domain electron counting measurements agrees well with the frequency-domain power spectrum analysis, both suggesting a Poissonian process at the charge degenerate point, in agreement with a model consisting of two charge states. Real time electron counting techniques can play a powerful role in studies on temporal electronic correlations, as well as quantum information processing schemes. Techniques that will improve the charge sensitivity of the RF-SET will also be discussed.