Measuring the behaviour of electrons injected into quantum dots

Author: EIS Release Date: Dec 8, 2022

Measuring the behavior of electrons injected into quantum dots promises insights into how electrons behave in complex real-world materials and could help researchers engineer devices that make possible  quantum computers, say scientists from the US National  Institute of Science and Technology (NIST).

 

The researchers made multiple 3-by-3 grids of precisely spaced quantum dots, each comprising one to three phosphorus atoms.

 

Attached to the grids were electrical leads and other components that enabled electrons to flow through them. The grids provided playing fields in which electrons could behave in nearly ideal, textbook-like conditions, free of the confounding effects of real-world materials.

 

The researchers injected electrons into the grids and observed how they behaved as the researchers varied conditions such as the spacing between the dots.

 

For grids in which the dots were close, the electrons tended to spread out and act like waves, essentially existing in several places at one time.

 

When the dots were far apart, they would sometimes get trapped in individual dots, like electrons in materials with insulating properties.

 

The grids provided playing fields in which electrons could behave in nearly ideal, textbook-like conditions, free of the confounding effects of real-world materials.

 

Advanced versions of the grid would allow researchers to study the behavior of electrons in controllable environments with a level of detail that would be impossible for the world’s most powerful conventional computers to simulate accurately.

 

It would open the door to full-fledged “analog quantum simulators” that unlock the secrets of exotic materials such as high-temperature superconductors.

 

It could also provide hints about how to create materials, such as topological insulators, by controlling the geometry of the quantum dot array.