Arthur C Gossard | Search PubMed

PubMed2005

Imaging a single-electron quantum dot.

Images of a single-electron quantum dot were obtained in the Coulomb blockade regime at liquid He temperatures using a cooled scanning probe microscope (SPM). The charged SPM tip shifts the lowest energy level in the dot and creates a ring in the image corresponding to a peak in the Coulomb-blockade conductance. Fits to the line shape of the ring determine the tip-induced shift of the energy of the electron state in the dot. SPM manipulation of electrons in quantum dots promises to be useful in understanding, building, and manipulating circuits for quantum information processing.

Arsenicals↗

PubMed2003

Tunable subpicosecond optoelectronic transduction in superlattices of self-assembled ErAs nanoislands.

In applications as diverse as fibre-optic communications and time-domain or terahertz spectroscopy, researchers are keen on ultrafast optoelectronic transducers that can be tailored to specific needs. The molecular beam epitaxy of photoconductors composed of equidistant layers of self-assembled ErAs-islands in a III-V semiconductor matrix, which act as efficient non-radiative carrier capture sites, enables this flexibility. Here, photocurrent autocorrelation techniques are applied to metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors patterned on ErAs:GaAs superlattices. The experiments demonstrate that the electrical response speed can be conveniently tuned over at least two orders of magnitude starting from 190 fs by increasing the thickness of the GaAs spacer separating adjacent ErAs layers. The same concept is applied to the narrower bandgap InGaAs matrix. We demonstrate an electron lifetime of approximately 1 ps for this material. This brings closer the prospect of implementing terahertz technology at the important optical communication wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 microm.

Nanotechnology↗