Design and operation of CMOS-compatible electron pumps fabricated with optical lithography

We report CMOS-compatible quantized current sources (electron pumps) fabricated with nanowires (NWs) on 300mm SOI wafers. Unlike other Al, GaAs or Si based metallic or semiconductor pumps, the fabrication does not rely on electron-beam lithography. The structure consists of two gates in series on the nanowire and the only difference with the SOI nanowire process lies in long (40nm) nitride spacers. As a result a single, silicide island gets isolated between the gates and transport is dominated by Coulomb blockade at cryogenic temperatures thanks to the small size and therefore capacitance of this island. Operation and performances comparable to devices fabricated using e-beam lithography is…

Study of silicon crystal surface formation based on molecular dynamics simulation results

Abstract The equilibrium shape of 〈 110 〉 -oriented single crystal silicon nanowire, 8 nm in cross-section, was found from molecular dynamics simulations using LAMMPS molecular dynamics package. The calculated shape agrees well to the shape predicted from experimental observations of nanocavities in silicon crystals. By parametrization of the shape and scaling to a known value of { 111 } surface energy, Wulff form for solid-vapor interface was obtained. The Wulff form for solid–liquid interface was constructed using the same model of the shape as for the solid–vapor interface. The parameters describing solid–liquid interface shape were found using values of surface energies in low-index dir…

Dopant-controlled single-electron pumping through a metallic island

We investigate a hybrid metallic island/single dopant electron pump based on fully depleted silicon-on-insulator technology. Electron transfer between the central metallic island and the leads is controlled by resonant tunneling through single phosphorus dopants in the barriers. Top gates above the barriers are used to control the resonance conditions. Applying radio frequency signals to the gates, non-adiabatic quantized electron pumping is achieved. A simple deterministic model is presented and confirmed by comparing measurements with simulations.

Numerical study of silicon crystal ridge growth

Abstract The size of the ridge-like protrusions appearing on the external surface of dislocation-free 〈 100 〉 silicon crystals grown from a melt was studied theoretically. According to existing models the growth of the ridges is caused by the presence of { 111 } crystal planes at the crystal–melt interface. They affect the height of triple phase line, free surface orientation and the crystal growth angle. A numerical 2-dimensional model was proposed for the calculation of the size of the crystal ridges. The model included the effect of the undercooling of the crystal–melt interface on the crystal growth angle. The numerical model estimated the effect of the ridge size on the free surface at…

Modeling of an adiabatic tunable-barrier electron pump