Ultrasmall silicon quantum dots

We report the realization of extremely small single quantum dots in p-type silicon nanowires, defined by Schottky tunnel barriers with Ni and NiSi contacts. Despite their ultrasmall size the NiSi–Si–NiSi nanowire quantum dots readily allow spectroscopy of at least ten consecutive holes, and additionally they display a pronounced excited-state...

Engineering the quantum point contact response to single-electron charging in a few-electron quantum-dot circuit

We show that the design of a quantum point contact adjacent to a quantum dot can be optimized to produce maximum sensitivity to single-electron charging in the quantum dot. Our analysis is based on the self-consistent solution of coupled three-dimensional Kohn-Sham and Poisson equations for the quantum circuit. We predict a detection sensitivity...