Investigation of High-Frequency Charge Dynamics in Nanoscale Structures

摘要

This research has focused on use of a radio-frequency single- electron transistor (RF-SET) to detect the motion of individual electrons in nanostructures such as quantum dots (QDs). During the course of this research we have developed strongly coupled RF-SET/QD system and used them to detect individual electron tunneling events on the dot in a time scale as short as 1 mu s. We have also studied the effects of changes in junction resistance on RF- SET operation and by using reduced junction resistances have developed RF-SETs with improved sensitivity and linearity. We are currently extending these techniques to double quantity dot (DQD) systems, which we intend to use to measure the frequency-resolved back action of the RF-SET. Finally, we are investigating the use of microwave independence matching techniques to optimize the performance of our RF-SETs and minimize the time required for detection of individual electrons.