Current correlations of an on-demand electron source as an evidence of single particle emission

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates single electron emission from a quantum dot source by analyzing current correlations, revealing quantum jitter noise and advancing quantum electron optics research.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quantum jitter noise as evidence of single particle emission in an electron source, paralleling quantum optics techniques.

Findings

Observation of quantum jitter noise in electron current correlations

Reduction of noise to the quantum jitter limit under optimal conditions

Potential for exploring quantum statistics and interactions at the single electron level

Abstract

In analogy with quantum optics, short time correlations of the current fluctuations are used to characterize an on-demand electron source consisting of a quantum dot connected to a conductor via a tunable tunnel barrier. We observe a new fundamental noise for electrons associated with the quantum fluctuations of the electron emission time, which we call quantum jitter. In optimum operating conditions of the source, the noise reduces to the quantum jitter limit, which demonstrates single particle emission. Combined with the coherent manipulations of single electrons in a quantum conductor, this electron quantum optics experiment opens the way to explore new problems including quantum statistics and interactions at the single electron level.