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Carroll, M. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Carroll, M. S..

Single-Shot Readout Performance of Two Heterojunction-Bipolar-Transistor Amplification Circuits at Millikelvin Temperatures

High-fidelity single-shot readout of spin qubits requires distinguishing states much faster than the T 1 time of the spin state. One approach to improving readout fidelity and bandwidth (BW) is cryogenic amplification, where the signal from the qubit is amplified before noise sources are introduced and room-temperature amplifiers can operate at lower gain and higher BW. We compare the performance of two cryogenic amplification circuits: a current-biased heterojunction bipolar transistor circuit (CB-HBT), and an AC-coupled HBT circuit (AC-HBT). Both circuits are mounted on the mixing-chamber stage of a dilution refrigerator and are connected to silicon metal oxide semiconductor (Si-MOS) quantum dot devices on a printed circuit board (PCB). The power dissipated by the CB-HBT ranges from 0.1 to 1 μW whereas the power of the AC-HBT ranges from 1 to 20 μW. Referred to the input, the noise spectral density is low for both circuits, in the 15 to 30 fA/√Hz range. The charge sensitivity for the CB-HBT and AC-HBT is 330 μe/√Hz and 400 μe/√Hz, respectively. For the single-shot readout performed, less than 10 its is required for both circuits to achieve bit error rates below 10-3, which is a putative threshold for quantum error correction.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Long-term drift of Si-MOS quantum dots with intentional donor implants

Charge noise can be detrimental to the operation of quantum dot (QD) based semiconductor qubits. Here, we study the low-frequency charge noise by charge offset drift measurements for Si-MOS devices with intentionally implanted donors near the QDs. We show that the MOS system exhibits non-equilibrium drift characteristics, in the form of transients and discrete jumps, that are not dependent on the properties of the donor implants. The equilibrium charge noise suggests a 1/f noise dependence, and a noise strength as low as 1 μeV/$\sqrt{Hz}$, comparable to that reported in more model GaAs and Si/SiGe systems (which have also not been implanted). We demonstrate that implanted qubits, therefore, can be fabricated without detrimental effects on long-term drift or 1/f noise for devices with less than 50 implanted donors near the qubit.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Quantum dots with split enhancement gate tunnel barrier control

We introduce a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dot architecture based on a single polysilicon gate stack. The elementary structure consists of two enhancement gates separated spatially by a gap, one gate forming a reservoir and the other a quantum dot. We demonstrate, in three devices based on two different versions of this elementary structure, that a wide range of tunnel rates is attainable while maintaining single-electron occupation. A characteristic change in slope of the charge transitions as a function of the reservoir gate voltage, attributed to screening from charges in the reservoir, is observed in all devices, and is expected to play a role in the sizable tuning orthogonality of the split enhancement gate structure. The all-silicon process is expected to minimize strain gradients from electrode thermal mismatch, while the single gate layer should avoid issues related to overlayers (e.g., additional dielectric charge noise) and help improve yield. Finally, reservoir gate control of the tunnel barrier has implications for initialization, manipulation and readout schemes in multi-quantum dot architectures.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Atomic-layer doping of SiGe heterostructures for atomic-precision donor devices

As a first step to porting scanning tunneling microscopy methods of atomic-precision fabrication to a strained-Si/SiGe platform, we demonstrate post-growth P atomic-layer doping of SiGe heterostructures. To preserve the substrate structure and elastic state, we use a T ≤ 800 °C process to prepare clean Si 0.86 Ge 0.14 surfaces suitable for atomic-precision fabrication. P-saturated atomic-layer doping is incorporated and capped with epitaxial Si under a thermal budget compatible with atomic-precision fabrication. Hall measurements at T = 0.3 K show that the doped heterostructure has R $\square$ = 570 ± 30 Ω , yielding an electron density n e = 2.1 ± 0.1 × 10 14 cm -2 and mobility μ e = 52 ± 3 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , similar to saturated atomic-layer doping in pure Si and Ge. The magnitude of μ e and the complete absence of Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations in magnetotransport measurements indicate that electrons are overwhelmingly localized in the donor layer, and not within a nearby buried Si well. Finally, this conclusion is supported by self-consistent Schrödinger-Poisson calculations that predict electron occupation primarily in the donor layer.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Ion implantation for deterministic single atom devices

Here, we demonstrate a capability of deterministic doping at the single atom level using a combination of direct write focused ion beam and solid-state ion detectors. The focused ion beam system can position a single ion to within 35 nm of a targeted location and the detection system is sensitive to single low energy heavy ions. This platform can be used to deterministically fabricate single atom devices in materials where the nanostructure and ion detectors can be integrated, including donor-based qubits in Si and color centers in diamond.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Valley splitting of single-electron Si MOS quantum dots

Here, silicon-based metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dots are prominent candidates for high-fidelity, manufacturable qubits. Due to silicon's band structure, additional low-energy states persist in these devices, presenting both challenges and opportunities. Although the physics governing these valley states has been the subject of intense study, quantitative agreement between experiment and theory remains elusive. Here, we present data from an experiment probing the valley states of quantum dot devices and develop a theory that is in quantitative agreement with both this and a recently reported experiment. Through sampling millions of realistic cases of interface roughness, our method provides evidence that the valley physics between the two samples is essentially the same.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Fabrication of quantum dots in undoped Si/Si{sub 0.8}Ge{sub 0.2} heterostructures using a single metal-gate layer

Enhancement-mode Si/SiGe electron quantum dots have been pursued extensively by many groups for their potential in quantum computing. Most of the reported dot designs utilize multiple metal-gate layers and use Si/SiGe heterostructures with Ge concentration close to 30%. Here, we report the fabrication and low-temperature characterization of quantum dots in the Si/Si{sub 0.8}Ge{sub 0.2} heterostructures using only one metal-gate layer. We find that the threshold voltage of a channel narrower than 1 μm increases as the width decreases. The higher threshold can be attributed to the combination of quantum confinement and disorder. We also find that the lower Ge ratio used here leads to a narrower operational gate bias range. The higher threshold combined with the limited gate bias range constrains the device design of lithographic quantum dots. We incorporate such considerations in our device design and demonstrate a quantum dot that can be tuned from a single dot to a double dot. The device uses only a single metal-gate layer, greatly simplifying device design and fabrication.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Cryogenic Preamplification of a Single-Electron-Transistor using a Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction-Bipolar-Transistor

We examine a silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) for cryogenic pre-amplification of a single electron transistor (SET). The SET current modulates the base current of the HBT directly. The HBT-SET circuit is immersed in liquid helium, and its frequency response from low frequency to several MHz is measured. The current gain and the noise spectrum with the HBT result in a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) that is a factor of 10–100 larger than without the HBT at lower frequencies. Furthermore, the transition frequency defined by SNR = 1 has been extended by as much as a factor of 10 compared to without the HBT amplification. The power dissipated by the HBT cryogenic pre-amplifier is approximately 5 nW to 5 μW for the investigated range of operation. We found that the circuit is also operated in a single electron charge read-out configuration in the time-domain as a proof-of-principle demonstration of the amplification approach for single spin read-out.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Probing the limits of Si:P δ -doped devices patterned by a scanning tunneling microscope in a field-emission mode

Recently, a single atom transistor was deterministically fabricated using phosphorus in Si by H-desorption lithography with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This milestone in precision, achieved by operating the STM in the conventional tunneling mode, typically utilizes slow (∼102 nm2/s) patterning speeds. By contrast, using the STM in a high-voltage (>10 V) field-emission mode, patterning speeds can be increased by orders of magnitude to ≳104 nm2/s. We show that the rapid patterning negligibly affects the functionality of relatively large micron-sized features, which act as contacting pads for these devices. For nanoscale structures, we show that the resulting electrical transport is consistent with the donor incorporation chemistry constraining the electrical dimensions to a scale of 10 nm even though the pattering spot size is 40 nm.

Rudolph, M.↗

Efficient self-consistent quantum transport simulator for quantum devices

We present a self-consistent one-dimensional (1D) quantum transport simulator based on the Contact Block Reduction (CBR) method, aiming for very fast and robust transport simulation of 1D quantum devices. Applying the general CBR approach to 1D open systems results in a set of very simple equations that are derived and given in detail for the first time. The charge self-consistency of the coupled CBR-Poisson equations is achieved by using the predictor-corrector iteration scheme with the optional Anderson acceleration. In addition, we introduce a new way to convert an equilibrium electrostatic barrier potential calculated from an external simulator to an effective doping profile, which is then used by the CBR-Poisson code for transport simulation of the barrier under non-zero biases. The code has been applied to simulate the quantum transport in a double barrier structure and across a tunnel barrier in a silicon double quantum dot. Extremely fast self-consistent 1D simulations of the differential conductance across a tunnel barrier in the quantum dot show better qualitative agreement with experiment than non-self-consistent simulations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗