Giga-Hertz quantized charge pumping in bottom gate defined InAs nanowire quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates GHz-frequency charge pumping in InAs nanowire quantum dots using local bottom gates, enabling controlled single-electron transport with potential applications in metrology and quantum physics research.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for high-frequency charge pumping in InAs nanowire quantum dots with electrostatic gating, achieving frequencies up to 1.3 GHz.

Findings

Charge pumping up to 1.3 GHz demonstrated

Controlled electron transfer per cycle achieved

Potential for quantum state investigations and metrology

Abstract

Semiconducting nanowires (NWs) are a versatile, highly tunable material platform at the heart of many new developments in nanoscale and quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate charge pumping, i.e., the controlled transport of individual electrons through an InAs NW quantum dot (QD) device at frequencies up to $1.3\,$GHz. The QD is induced electrostatically in the NW by a series of local bottom gates in a state of the art device geometry. A periodic modulation of a single gate is enough to obtain a dc current proportional to the frequency of the modulation. The dc bias, the modulation amplitude and the gate voltages on the local gates can be used to control the number of charges conveyed per cycle. Charge pumping in InAs NWs is relevant not only in metrology as a current standard, but also opens up the opportunity to investigate a variety of exotic states of matter, e.g. Majorana modes, by single electron spectroscopy and correlation experiments.