Observation of the single-electron regime in a highly tunable silicon quantum dot

TL;DR

This study demonstrates precise control of a silicon quantum dot at the single-electron level using independent gate tuning, enabling detailed spectroscopic analysis of quantum states in a highly tunable architecture.

Contribution

It introduces a silicon quantum dot device with independent gate control of leads and dot, allowing detailed spectroscopic probing without affecting lead electron densities.

Findings

Single-electron occupancy achieved in silicon quantum dot

Gate control distinguishes dot states from lead density modulations

Magnetospectroscopy reveals ground state transitions

Abstract

We report on low-temperature electronic transport measurements of a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dot, with independent gate control of electron densities in the leads and the quantum dot island. This architecture allows the dot energy levels to be probed without affecting the electron density in the leads, and vice versa. Appropriate gate biasing enables the dot occupancy to be reduced to the single-electron level, as evidenced by magnetospectroscopy measurements of the ground state of the first two charge transitions. Independent gate control of the electron reservoirs also enables discrimination between excited states of the dot and density of states modulations in the leads.