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Gigahertz quantized charge pumping

Nature Physics volume 3, pages 343–347 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The high-speed, high-accuracy transport of single electrons in nanoscale devices is predicted to underpin future electronics. A key and topical application is the development of a fundamental standard of electrical current linking the ampere to the elementary charge and frequency. For a practical standard, currents at the nanoampere level are required, corresponding to gigahertz transport frequencies. Recent research has concentrated on transport using Coulomb blockade techniques. However, the tunnelling time of the electrons in such devices limits the operation to a few megahertz. We present a different pumping mechanism of single charges, whereby electrons ‘surf’ as particles on a time-dependent potential instead of tunnelling through the barriers as waves. This potential is created by two phase-shifted sinusoidal signals applied directly to metallic finger gates on an etched GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire. Pumping accurate to better than 10−4, at a frequency up to 3.4 GHz, is reported with this approach.

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Figure 1: Active region of the device with corresponding electronic set-up.
Figure 2: Pumping mechanism and application of the gate voltage signals.
Figure 3: Two-dimensional grey-scale plots of pumped current.
Figure 4: Pumped quantized current plateaux.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge A. Robinson, S. Amakawa, V. Kashcheyevs and H. W. Schumacher for useful discussions. Acknowledgment also goes to K. Cooper and J. Griffiths for advice and work on the fabrication of the devices. This work was supported by the UK National Measurement System and the EPSRC. L.L. acknowledges support by the National Nature Science Foundation of China under grant No 60436010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK

    M. D. Blumenthal, M. Pepper, D. Anderson, G. Jones & D. A. Ritchie

  2. National Physical Laboratory, Hampton Road, Teddington TW11 0LW, UK

    M. D. Blumenthal, B. Kaestner, L. Li, S. Giblin & T. J. B. M. Janssen

  3. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany

    B. Kaestner

  4. Department of Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China

    L. Li

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  1. M. D. Blumenthal
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Correspondence to M. D. Blumenthal.

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Blumenthal, M., Kaestner, B., Li, L. et al. Gigahertz quantized charge pumping. Nature Phys 3, 343–347 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys582

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