Optoelectronic sampling of ultrafast electric transients with single quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of engineered single quantum dot photodiodes as ultra-fast, high-resolution sensors for optoelectronic sampling of electric transients below 20 ps, utilizing the Stark effect and resonant laser spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum dot sensor device capable of sampling ultrafast electric signals with high temporal and voltage resolution.

Findings

Sampled transients below 20 ps

Achieved millivolt voltage resolution

Demonstrated high-resolution optoelectronic sampling

Abstract

In our work, we have engineered low capacitance single quantum dot photodiodes as sensor devices for the optoelectronic sampling of ultrafast electric signals. By the Stark effect, a time-dependent electric signal is converted into a time-dependent shift of the transition energy. This shift is measured accurately by resonant ps laser spectroscopy with photocurrent detection. In our experiments, we sample the laser synchronous output pulse of an ultrafast CMOS circuit with high resolution. With our quantum dot sensor device, we were able to sample transients below 20 ps with a voltage resolution in the mV-range.