2007/05/30 by Gwendal Fève, Adrien Mahé, Jean-Marc Berroir +6 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1141243
published as Science 316 (2007) 1169
arxiv created 2007/05/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We report on the electron analog of the single photon gun. On demand single electron injection in a quantum conductor was obtained using a quantum dot connected to the conductor via a tunnel barrier. Electron emission is triggered by application of a potential step which compensates the dot charging energy. Depending on the barrier transparency the quantum emission time ranges from 0.1 to 10 nanoseconds. The single electron source should prove useful for the implementation of quantum bits in ballistic conductors. Additionally periodic sequences of single electron emission and absorption generate a quantized AC-current.