Thermally excited tunneling from a metastable electronic state in a single-Cooper-pair transistor

Metastable electron traps and two-level systems (TLSs) are common in solid-state devices and lead to background charge movement and charge noise in single-electron and single-Cooper-pair transistors. We present measurements of the real-time capture and escape of individual electrons in metastable tr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2008-10, Vol.93 (17)
Main Authors: Rees, D. G., Glasson, P., Simkins, L. R., Collin, E., Antonov, V., Frayne, P. G., Meeson, P. J., Lea, M. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed Matter
Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Hall Effect
Physics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Metastable electron traps and two-level systems (TLSs) are common in solid-state devices and lead to background charge movement and charge noise in single-electron and single-Cooper-pair transistors. We present measurements of the real-time capture and escape of individual electrons in metastable trapped states at very low temperatures, leading to charge offsets close to 1e. The charge movement exhibits thermal excitation to a hysteretic tunneling transition. The temperature dependence and hysteresis can be explained by the coupling of a TLS to a quasiparticle trap.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3012374