Experimental demonstration of a latch in clocked quantum-dot cellular automata

Abstract

We present an experimental demonstration of a latch in a clocked quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) device. The device consists of three floating micron-size metal dots, connected in series by multiple tunnel junctions and controlled by capacitively coupled gates. The middle dot acts as an adjustable barrier to control single-electron tunneling between end dots. The position of a switching electron in the half cell is detected by a single-electron electrometer. We demonstrate “latching” of a single electron in the end dots controlled by the gate connected to the middle dot. This ability to lock an electron in a controllable way enables pipelining, power gain and reduced power dissipation in QCA arrays.