Charge state control and relaxation in an atomically doped silicon device

Abstract

We demonstrate time-resolved control and detection of single-electron transfers in a silicon device implanted with exactly two phosphorus donors. Charge state relaxation at millikelvin temperature is shown to be dominated by phonon emission and background charge fluctuations for low energies, while higher-order processes take over at higher energies. Our results reveal relaxation times for single-donor charge states of several milliseconds, which have significant implications for single-atom nanoelectronics. © 2007 American Chemical Society.