Optical tracing of multiple charges in single-electron devices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that aromatic organic dye molecules can be used as highly sensitive optical sensors to detect and track multiple single-electron charges with nanometer precision, enabling advanced nanoscale electronic device inspection.

Contribution

It provides a first-principles derivation of charge sensitivity and numerical modeling showing feasible optical detection of multiple electrons in nanodevices.

Findings

Charge sensitivity better than 10^{-5} e/√Hz

Simultaneous tracking of multiple electrons with nanometer resolution

Potential for minimally-invasive optical inspection of nanodevices

Abstract

Single molecules that exhibit narrow optical transitions at cryogenic temperatures can be used as local electric-field sensors. We derive the single charge sensitivity of aromatic organic dye molecules, based on first principles. Through numerical modeling, we demonstrate that by using currently available technologies it is possible to optically detect charging events in a granular network with a sensitivity better than $10^{-5}e/\sqrt{\textrm{Hz}}$ and track positions of multiple electrons, simultaneously, with nanometer spatial resolution. Our results pave the way for minimally-invasive optical inspection of electronic and spintronic nanodevices and building hybrid optoelectronic interfaces that function at both single-photon and single-electron levels.