Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications
Single-electron tunneling transistors (SETs) and boxes (SEBs) exploit the phenomenon of Coulomb blockade to achieve unprecedented charge sensitivities. Single-electron boxes, however, despite their simplicity compared to SETs, have rarely been used for practical applications. The main reason for tha...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797 |
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| author | Thomas A. Zirkle Matthew J. Filmer Jonathan Chisum Alexei O. Orlov Eva Dupont-Ferrier Joffrey Rivard Matthew Huebner Marc Sanquer Xavier Jehl Gregory L. Snider |
| author_facet | Thomas A. Zirkle Matthew J. Filmer Jonathan Chisum Alexei O. Orlov Eva Dupont-Ferrier Joffrey Rivard Matthew Huebner Marc Sanquer Xavier Jehl Gregory L. Snider |
| author_sort | Thomas A. Zirkle |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Single-electron tunneling transistors (SETs) and boxes (SEBs) exploit the phenomenon of Coulomb blockade to achieve unprecedented charge sensitivities. Single-electron boxes, however, despite their simplicity compared to SETs, have rarely been used for practical applications. The main reason for that is that unlike a SET where the gate voltage controls conductance between the source and the drain, an SEB is a two terminal device that requires either an integrated SET amplifier or high-frequency probing of its complex admittance by means of radio frequency reflectometry (RFR). The signal to noise ratio (SNR) for a SEB is small, due to its much lower admittance compared to a SET and thus matching networks are required for efficient coupling ofSEBs to an RFR setup. To boost the signal strength by a factor of <inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msqrt><mi>N</mi></msqrt></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> (due to a random offset charge) SEBs can be connected in parallel to form arrays sharing common gates and sources. The smaller the size of the SEB, the larger the charging energy of a SEB enabling higher operation temperature, and using devices with a small footprint (<0.01 µm<sup>2</sup>), a large number of devices (>1000) can be assembled into an array occupying just a few square microns. We show that it is possible to design SEB arrays that may compete with an SET in terms of sensitivity. In this, we tested SETs using RF reflectometry in a configuration with no DC through path (“DC-decoupled SET” or DCD SET) along with SEBs connected to the same matching network. The experiment shows that the lack of a path for a DC current makes SEBs and DCD SETs highly electrostatic discharge (ESD) tolerant, a very desirable feature for applications. We perform a detailed analysis of experimental data on SEB arrays of various sizes and compare it with simulations to devise several ways for practical applications of SEB arrays and DCD SETs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:14:00Z |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:14:00Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-d322d20fe10646308c56b665bcd004852023-11-20T23:59:29ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172020-12-011024879710.3390/app10248797Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing ApplicationsThomas A. Zirkle0Matthew J. Filmer1Jonathan Chisum2Alexei O. Orlov3Eva Dupont-Ferrier4Joffrey Rivard5Matthew Huebner6Marc Sanquer7Xavier Jehl8Gregory L. Snider9Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USADepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USADepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USADepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USAInstitut Quantique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, CanadaInstitut Quantique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, CanadaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USAPHELIQS-LATEQS, Université Grenoble-Alpes and CEA-Grenoble, 38054 Grenoble, FrancePHELIQS-LATEQS, Université Grenoble-Alpes and CEA-Grenoble, 38054 Grenoble, FranceDepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USASingle-electron tunneling transistors (SETs) and boxes (SEBs) exploit the phenomenon of Coulomb blockade to achieve unprecedented charge sensitivities. Single-electron boxes, however, despite their simplicity compared to SETs, have rarely been used for practical applications. The main reason for that is that unlike a SET where the gate voltage controls conductance between the source and the drain, an SEB is a two terminal device that requires either an integrated SET amplifier or high-frequency probing of its complex admittance by means of radio frequency reflectometry (RFR). The signal to noise ratio (SNR) for a SEB is small, due to its much lower admittance compared to a SET and thus matching networks are required for efficient coupling ofSEBs to an RFR setup. To boost the signal strength by a factor of <inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msqrt><mi>N</mi></msqrt></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> (due to a random offset charge) SEBs can be connected in parallel to form arrays sharing common gates and sources. The smaller the size of the SEB, the larger the charging energy of a SEB enabling higher operation temperature, and using devices with a small footprint (<0.01 µm<sup>2</sup>), a large number of devices (>1000) can be assembled into an array occupying just a few square microns. We show that it is possible to design SEB arrays that may compete with an SET in terms of sensitivity. In this, we tested SETs using RF reflectometry in a configuration with no DC through path (“DC-decoupled SET” or DCD SET) along with SEBs connected to the same matching network. The experiment shows that the lack of a path for a DC current makes SEBs and DCD SETs highly electrostatic discharge (ESD) tolerant, a very desirable feature for applications. We perform a detailed analysis of experimental data on SEB arrays of various sizes and compare it with simulations to devise several ways for practical applications of SEB arrays and DCD SETs.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797single-electron tunnelingsingle-electron boxtunnel barrierRF reflectometrySisyphus resistancedynamic capacitance |
| spellingShingle | Thomas A. Zirkle Matthew J. Filmer Jonathan Chisum Alexei O. Orlov Eva Dupont-Ferrier Joffrey Rivard Matthew Huebner Marc Sanquer Xavier Jehl Gregory L. Snider Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications Applied Sciences single-electron tunneling single-electron box tunnel barrier RF reflectometry Sisyphus resistance dynamic capacitance |
| title | Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications |
| title_full | Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications |
| title_fullStr | Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications |
| title_short | Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications |
| title_sort | radio frequency reflectometry of single electron box arrays for nanoscale voltage sensing applications |
| topic | single-electron tunneling single-electron box tunnel barrier RF reflectometry Sisyphus resistance dynamic capacitance |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/24/8797 |
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