Exploiting the nonlinear impact dynamics of a single-electron shuttle for highly regular current transport

TL;DR

This paper proposes leveraging the nonlinear impact dynamics of a nanomechanical single-electron shuttle to achieve highly regular and synchronized current transport, enhancing precision for potential standardization.

Contribution

It introduces a method to exploit nonlinear impact-induced dynamics for synchronization, improving frequency stability in single-electron shuttles.

Findings

Synchronization of shuttle oscillations to external signals is achievable.

Nonlinear impact dynamics can be harnessed for frequency stabilization.

Enhanced regularity in electron transport is demonstrated.

Abstract

The nanomechanical single-electron shuttle is a resonant system in which a suspended metallic island oscillates between and impacts at two electrodes. This setup holds promise for one-by-one electron transport and the establishment of an absolute current standard. While the charge transported per oscillation by the nanoscale island will be quantized in the Coulomb blockade regime, the frequency of such a shuttle depends sensitively on many parameters, leading to drift and noise. Instead of considering the nonlinearities introduced by the impact events as a nuisance, here we propose to exploit the resulting nonlinear dynamics to realize a highly precise oscillation frequency via synchronization of the shuttle self-oscillations to an external signal.