skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Cryogenic Preamplification of a Single-Electron-Transistor using a Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction-Bipolar-Transistor

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921308· OSTI ID:1235274
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

We examine a silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) for cryogenic pre-amplification of a single electron transistor (SET). The SET current modulates the base current of the HBT directly. The HBT-SET circuit is immersed in liquid helium, and its frequency response from low frequency to several MHz is measured. The current gain and the noise spectrum with the HBT result in a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) that is a factor of 10–100 larger than without the HBT at lower frequencies. Furthermore, the transition frequency defined by SNR = 1 has been extended by as much as a factor of 10 compared to without the HBT amplification. The power dissipated by the HBT cryogenic pre-amplifier is approximately 5 nW to 5 μW for the investigated range of operation. We found that the circuit is also operated in a single electron charge read-out configuration in the time-domain as a proof-of-principle demonstration of the amplification approach for single spin read-out.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1235274
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1237466
Report Number(s):
SAND2015-3432J; SAND-2015-1783J; 583595
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 20; ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (29)

A single-atom electron spin qubit in silicon journal September 2012
Electron Spin Decoherence in Isotope-Enriched Silicon journal October 2010
Quantum Spintronics: Engineering and Manipulating Atom-Like Spins in Semiconductors journal March 2013
Silicon quantum electronics journal July 2013
Embracing the quantum limit in silicon computing journal November 2011
Single-shot read-out of an individual electron spin in a quantum dot journal July 2004
Single-Shot Readout of Electron Spin States in a Quantum Dot Using Spin-Dependent Tunnel Rates journal May 2005
Rapid Single-Shot Measurement of a Singlet-Triplet Qubit journal October 2009
Amplifying quantum signals with the single-electron transistor journal August 2000
Single-shot readout of an electron spin in silicon journal September 2010
Electron spin lifetime of a single antimony donor in silicon journal September 2013
The Radio-Frequency Single-Electron Transistor (RF-SET): A Fast and Ultrasensitive Electrometer journal May 1998
Fast sensing of double-dot charge arrangement and spin state with a radio-frequency sensor quantum dot journal April 2010
Direct detection of a transport-blocking trap in a nanoscaled silicon single-electron transistor by radio-frequency reflectometry journal June 2014
Probing the limits of gate-based charge sensing journal January 2015
Radio-frequency dispersive detection of donor atoms in a field-effect transistor journal March 2014
Dispersive Readout of a Few-Electron Double Quantum Dot with Fast rf Gate Sensors journal January 2013
Strong coupling of a single photon to a superconducting qubit using circuit quantum electrodynamics journal September 2004
Circuit quantum electrodynamics with a spin qubit journal October 2012
A prototype silicon double quantum dot with dispersive microwave readout journal July 2014
Invited Review Article: The Josephson bifurcation amplifier journal November 2009
Josephson Directional Amplifier for Quantum Measurement of Superconducting Circuits journal April 2014
Sub-Nanoampere One-Shot Single Electron Transistor Readout Electrometry Below 10 Kelvin journal October 2014
Cryogenic amplifier for fast real-time detection of single-electron tunneling journal September 2007
Silicon-Germanium as an Enabling Technology for Extreme Environment Electronics journal December 2010
Sub-1-K Operation of SiGe Transistors and Circuits journal May 2009
Operation of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors in the liquid-helium temperature regime journal June 1995
Device and Circuit Cryogenic Operation for Low Temperature Electronics book January 2001
Analytical Modeling of Single Electron Transistor for Hybrid CMOS-SET Analog IC Design journal November 2004

Cited By (8)

Silicon quantum processor with robust long-distance qubit couplings journal September 2017
Single-Shot Readout Performance of Two Heterojunction-Bipolar-Transistor Amplification Circuits at Millikelvin Temperatures journal November 2019
Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of magnetic tunnel junctions by cryogenic preamplification journal April 2019
Semiconductor quantum computation journal December 2018
Spin-orbit Interactions for Singlet-Triplet Qubits in Silicon journal May 2019
Resonantly driven CNOT gate for electron spins journal December 2017
Silicon quantum processor with robust long-distance qubit couplings text January 2015
Spin-orbit Interactions for Singlet-Triplet Qubits in Silicon text January 2018