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Title: Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

Abstract

Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni–Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni–Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacing of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I–V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. Furthermore, all of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfacesmore » to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1411017
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
npj Quantum Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2397-4648
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

Cheng, Jian -Yih, Fisher, Brandon L., Guisinger, Nathan P., and Lilley, Carmen M. Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1038/s41535-017-0029-4.
Cheng, Jian -Yih, Fisher, Brandon L., Guisinger, Nathan P., & Lilley, Carmen M. Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0029-4
Cheng, Jian -Yih, Fisher, Brandon L., Guisinger, Nathan P., and Lilley, Carmen M. Mon . "Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0029-4. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1411017.
@article{osti_1411017,
title = {Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance},
author = {Cheng, Jian -Yih and Fisher, Brandon L. and Guisinger, Nathan P. and Lilley, Carmen M.},
abstractNote = {Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni–Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni–Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacing of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I–V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. Furthermore, all of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.},
doi = {10.1038/s41535-017-0029-4},
journal = {npj Quantum Materials},
number = 1,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

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