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Amplifying quantum signals with the single-electron transistor

Nature volume 406, pages 1039–1046 (2000)Cite this article

Transistors have continuously reduced in size and increased in switching speed since their invention in 1947. The exponential pace of transistor evolution has led to a revolution in information acquisition, processing and communication technologies. And reigning over most digital applications is a single device structure — the field-effect transistor (FET). But as device dimensions approach the nanometre scale, quantum effects become increasingly important for device operation, and conceptually new transistor structures may need to be adopted. A notable example of such a structure is the single-electron transistor, or SET1,2,3,4. Although it is unlikely that SETs will replace FETs in conventional electronics, they should prove useful in ultra-low-noise analog applications. Moreover, because it is not affected by the same technological limitations as the FET, the SET can approach closely the quantum limit of sensitivity. It might also be a useful read-out device for a solid-state quantum computer.

It is now possible to put a billion transistors on a single chip operating with a clock period of a billionth of a second. Most probably, the trend in reducing dimensions and times will continue in the next decade. But as the number and density of gates and memory elements increase, the energy of signals also has to be reduced to keep the power dissipation sufficiently low.

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Figure 1: Principle of a metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET).
Figure 2: Variation of the source–drain current in a MOSFET as a function of the gate voltage.
Figure 3: The single-electron tunnelling transistor (SET).
Figure 4: Charge levels of the SET.
Figure 5: Variation at T = 0 of the source–drain current in a SET as a function of the voltage between drain and source and the voltage between gate and source.
Figure 6: Effective circuit elements describing the properties of a linear voltage amplifier with no feedback. The triangle represents an ideal noiseless voltage amplifier with infinite input impedance and zero output impedance.
Figure 7: The single-Cooper-pair box.
Figure 8: Measuring the state of a quantum system.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) and the Army Research Office (ARO). One of us (M.H.D) acknowledges support from Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA). We thank D. Averin, J. Clarke, P. Delsing, D. Esteve A. Korotkov, K. Likharev, H. Mooij, D. Prober, G. Schoen and E. Wollack for helpful discussions and communications of results prior to publication.

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  1. Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, 06520, Connecticut, USA

    Michel H. Devoret & Robert J. Schoelkopf

  2. Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA-Saclay, F-91191, France

    Michel H. Devoret

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Devoret, M., Schoelkopf, R. Amplifying quantum signals with the single-electron transistor. Nature 406, 1039–1046 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35023253

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