Publications

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Recent years have seen an explosion in research efforts discovering and understanding novel electronic and optical properties of topological quantum materials (TQMs). In this LDRD, a synergistic effort of materials growth, characterization, electrical-magneto-optical measurements, combined with density functional theory and modeling has been established to address the unique properties of TQMs. Particularly, we have carried out extensive studies in search for Majorana fermions (MFs) in TQMs for topological quantum computation. Moreover, we have focused on three important science questions. 1) How can we controllably tune the properties of TQMs to make them suitable for quantum information applications? 2) What materials parameters are most important for successfully observing MFs in TQMs? 3) Can the physical properties of TQMs be tailored by topological band engineering? Results obtained in this LDRD not only deepen our current knowledge in fundamental quantum physics but also hold great promise for advanced electronic/photonic applications in information technologies. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work at Sandia National Labs was supported by a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project. Device fabrication was performed at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. We are grateful to many people inside and outside Sandia for their support and fruitful collaborations. This report describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Gate length dependent (80 nm–5000 mm) radio frequency measurements to extract saturation velocity are reported for Al0.85Ga0.15N/Al0.7Ga0.3N high electron mobility transistors fabricated into radio frequency devices using electron beam lithography. Direct current characterization revealed the threshold voltage shifting positively with increasing gate length, with devices changing from depletion mode to enhancement mode when the gate length was greater than or equal to 450 nm. Transconductance varied from 10 mS/mm to 25 mS/mm, with the 450 nm device having the highest values. Maximum drain current density was 268 mA/mm at 10 V gate bias. Scattering-parameter characterization revealed a maximum unity gain bandwidth (fT) of 28 GHz, achieved by the 80 nm gate length device. A saturation velocity value of 3.8 × 106 cm/s, or 35% of the maximum saturation velocity reported for GaN, was extracted from the fT measurements.

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Al-rich AlGaN-channel high electron mobility transistors with 80-nm long gates and 85% (70%) Al in the barrier (channel) were evaluated for RF performance. The dc characteristics include a maximum current of 160 mA/mm with a transconductance of 24 mS/mm, limited by source and drain contacts, and an on/off current ratio of 109. fT of 28.4 GHz and fMAX of 18.5 GHz were determined from small-signal S-parameter measurements. Output power density of 0.38 W/mm was realized at 3 GHz in a power sweep using on-wafer load pull techniques.

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The ability to control the light-matter interaction with an external stimulus is a very active area of research since it creates exciting new opportunities for designing optoelectronic devices. Recently, plasmonic metasurfaces have proven to be suitable candidates for achieving a strong light-matter interaction with various types of optical transitions, including intersubband transitions (ISTs) in semiconductor quantum wells (QWs). For voltage modulation of the light-matter interaction, plasmonic metasurfaces coupled to ISTs offer unique advantages since the parameters determining the strength of the interaction can be independently engineered. In this work, we report a proof-of-concept demonstration of a new approach to voltage-tune the coupling between ISTs in QWs and a plasmonic metasurface. In contrast to previous approaches, the IST strength is here modified via control of the electron populations in QWs located in the near field of the metasurface. By turning on and off the ISTs in the semiconductor QWs, we observe a modulation of the optical response of the IST coupled metasurface due to modulation of the coupled light-matter states. Because of the electrostatic design, our device exhibits an extremely low leakage current of ∼6 pA at a maximum operating bias of +1 V and therefore very low power dissipation. Our approach provides a new direction for designing voltage-tunable metasurface-based optical modulators.

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Considering the power constrained scaling of silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, the use of high mobility III-V compound semiconductors such as In0.53Ga0.47As in conjunction with high-κ dielectrics is becoming a promising option for future n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors. Development of low dissipation field-effect tunable III-V based photonic devices integrated with high-κ dielectrics is therefore very appealing from a technological perspective. In this work, we present an experimental realization of a monolithically integrable, field-effect-tunable, III-V hybrid metasurface operating at long-wave-infrared spectral bands. Our device relies on strong light-matter coupling between epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) modes of an ultra-thin In0.53Ga0.47As layer and the dipole resonances of a complementary plasmonic metasurface. The tuning mechanism of our device is based on field-effect modulation, where we modulate the coupling between the ENZ mode and the metasurface by modifying the carrier density in the ENZ layer using an external bias voltage. Modulating the bias voltage between ±2 V, we deplete and accumulate carriers in the ENZ layer, which result in spectrally tuning the eigenfrequency of the upper polariton branch at 13 μm by 480 nm and modulating the reflectance by 15%, all with leakage current densities less than 1 μA/cm2. Our wavelength scalable approach demonstrates the possibility of designing on-chip voltage-tunable filters compatible with III-V based focal plane arrays at mid- and long-wave-infrared wavelengths.

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We experimentally demonstrated an actively tunable optical filter that controls the amplitude of reflected long-wave-infrared light in two separate spectral regions concurrently. Our device exploits the dependence of the excitation energy of plasmons in a continuous and unpatterned sheet of graphene on the Fermi-level, which can be controlled via conventional electrostatic gating. The filter enables simultaneous modification of two distinct spectral bands whose positions are dictated by the device geometry and graphene plasmon dispersion. Within these bands, the reflected amplitude can be varied by over 15% and resonance positions can be shifted by over 90 cm-1. Electromagnetic simulations verify that tuning arises through coupling of incident light to graphene plasmons by a grating structure. Importantly, the tunable range is determined by a combination of graphene properties, device structure, and the surrounding dielectrics, which dictate the plasmon dispersion. Thus, the underlying design shown here isapplicable across a broad range of infrared frequencies.

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Optical communication systems increasingly require electrooptical modulators that deliver high modulation speeds across a large optical bandwidth with a small device footprint and a CMOS-compatible fabrication process. Although silicon photonic modulators based on transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have shown promise for delivering on these requirements, modulation speeds to date have been limited. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and performance of a fast, compact electroabsorption modulator based on TCOs. The modulator works by using bias voltage to increase the carrier density in the conducting oxide, which changes the permittivity and hence optical attenuation by almost 10 dB. Under bias, light is tightly confined to the conducting oxide layer through nonresonant epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effects, which enable modulation over a broad range of wavelengths in the telecommunications band. Our approach features simple integration with passive silicon waveguides, the use of stable inorganic materials, and the ability to modulate both transverse electric and magnetic polarizations with the same device design. Using a 4-μm-long modulator and a drive voltage of 2 Vpp, we demonstrate digital modulation at rates of 2.5 Gb/s. We report broadband operation with a 6.5 dB extinction ratio across the 1530–1590 nm band and a 10 dB insertion loss. This work verifies that high-speed ENZ devices can be created using conducting oxide materials and paves the way for additional technology development that could have a broad impact on future optical communications systems.

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Qubits based on transistor-like Si MOS nanodevices are promising for quantum computing. In this work, we demonstrate a double quantum dot spin qubit that is all-electrically controlled without the need for any external components, like micromagnets, that could complicate integration. Universal control of the qubit is achieved through spin-orbit-like and exchange interactions. Using single shot readout, we show both DC- and AC-control techniques. The fabrication technology used is completely compatible with CMOS.

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The manufacturing tolerances of a stencil-lithography variant, membrane projection lithography, were investigated. In the first part of this work, electron beam lithography was used to create stencils with a range of linewidths. These patterns were transferred into the stencil membrane and used to pattern metallic lines on vertical silicon faces. Only the largest lines, with a nominal width of 84 nm, were resolved, resulting in 45 ± 10 nm (average ± standard deviation) as deposited with 135-nm spacing. Although written in the e-beam write software file as 84-nm in width, the lines exhibited linewidth bias. This can largely be attributed to nonvertical sidewalls inherent to dry etching techniques that cause proportionally larger impact with decreasing feature size. The line edge roughness can be significantly attributed to the grain structure of the aluminum nitride stencil membrane. In the second part of this work, the spatial uniformity of optically defined (as opposed to e-beam written) metamaterial structures over large areas was assessed. A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer microscope was used to collect the reflection spectra of samples with optically defined vertical split ring from 25 spatially resolved 300 × 300 μm regions in a 1-cm2 area. The technique is shown to provide a qualitative measure of the uniformity of the inclusions.

We demonstrate a capability of deterministic doping at the single atom level using a combination of direct write focused ion beam and solid-state ion detectors. The focused ion beam system can position a single ion to within 35 nm of a targeted location and the detection system is sensitive to single low energy heavy ions. This platform can be used to deterministically fabricate single atom devices in materials where the nanostructure and ion detectors can be integrated, including donor-based qubits in Si and color centers in diamond.

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We examine integration of a patterned metal nanoantenna (or metasurface) directly onto long-wave infrared detectors. These structures show significantly improved external quantum efficiency compared to their traditional counterparts. We will show simulation and experimental results.

Epsilon-near-zero materials provide a new path for tailoring light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. In this paper, we analyze a compact electroabsorption modulator based on epsilon-near-zero confinement in transparent conducting oxide films. The nonresonant modulator operates through field-effect carrier density tuning. We compare the performance of modulators composed of two different conducting oxides, namely, indium oxide (In2O3) and cadmium oxide (CdO), and show that better modulation performance is achieved when using high-mobility (i.e., low loss) epsilon-near-zero materials such as CdO. In particular, we show that nonresonant electroabsorption modulators with submicron lengths and greater than 5 dB extinction ratios may be achieved through the proper selection of high-mobility transparent conducting oxides, opening a path for device miniaturization and increased modulation depth.

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High-quality infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) are used in many satellite, astronomical, and terrestrial applications. These applications require highly-sensitive, low-noise FPAs, and therefore do not benefit from advances made in low-cost thermal imagers where reducing cost and enabling high-temperature operation drive device development. Infrared detectors used in FPAs have been made for decades from alloys of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT). These infrared detectors are nearing the believed limit of their performance. This limit, known in the infrared detector community as Rule 07, dictates the dark current floor for MCT detectors, in their traditional architecture, for a given temperature and cutoff wavelength. To overcome the bounds imposed by Rule 07, many groups are working on detector compounds other than MCT. We focus on detectors employing III-V-based gallium-free InAsSb superlattice active regions while also changing the basic architecture of the pixel to improve signal-to-noise. Our architecture relies on a resonant, metallic, subwavelength nanoantenna patterned on the absorber surface, in combination with a Fabry-Pérot cavity, to couple the incoming radiation into tightly confined modes near the nanoantenna. This confinement of the incident energy in a thin layer allows us to greatly reduce the volume of the absorbing layer to a fraction of the free-space wavelength, yielding a corresponding reduction in dark current from spontaneously generated electron-hole pairs in the absorber material. This architecture is detector material agnostic and could be applied to MCT detector structures as well, although we focus on using superlattice antimonide-based detector materials. This detector concept has been applied to both mid-wave (3-5 μm) and longwave (8-12 μm) infrared detectors and absorbers. Here we examine long-wave devices, as these detectors currently have a larger gap between desired device performance and that of currently existing detectors. The measured structures show an external quantum efficiency exceeding 50%. We present a comparison of the modeled and measured photoresponse of these detectors and compare these detectors to currently available commercial detectors using relevant metrics such as external quantum efficiency. We also discuss modeling of crosstalk between adjacent pixels and its influence on the potential for a dual-wavelength detector. Finally, we evaluate potential advances in these detectors that may occur in the near future.

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Si-MOS based QD qubits are attractive due to their similarity to the current semiconductor industry. We introduce a highly tunable MOS foundry compatible qubit design that couples an electrostatic quantum dot (QD) with an implanted donor. We show for the first time coherent two-axis control of a two-electron spin logical qubit that evolves under the QD-donor exchange interaction and the hyperfine interaction with the donor nucleus. The two interactions are tuned electrically with surface gate voltages to provide control of both qubit axes. Qubit decoherence is influenced by charge noise, which is of similar strength as epitaxial systems like GaAs and Si/SiGe.

We study the role of carrier mobility in transparent conducting oxides integrated into epsilon-near-zero modulators. High-mobility materials including CdO enable sub-micron length electroabsorption modulators through >4dB/μm extinction ratios.

We present a new approach to dielectric metasurface design that relies on a single resonator per unit cell and produces robust, high quality factor Fano resonances. Our approach utilizes symmetry breaking of highly symmetric resonator geometries, such as cubes, to induce couplings between the otherwise orthogonal resonator modes. In particular, we design perturbations that couple "bright" dipole modes to "dark" dipole modes whose radiative decay is suppressed by local field effects in the array. Our approach is widely scalable from the near-infrared to radio frequencies. We first unravel the Fano resonance behavior through numerical simulations of a germanium resonator-based metasurface that achieves a quality factor of ∼1300 at ∼10.8 μm. Then, we present two experimental demonstrations operating in the near-infrared (∼1 μm): a silicon-based implementation that achieves a quality factor of ∼350; and a gallium arsenide-based structure that achieves a quality factor of ∼600, the highest near-infrared quality factor experimentally demonstrated to date with this kind of metasurface. Importantly, large electromagnetic field enhancements appear within the resonators at the Fano resonant frequencies. We envision that combining high quality factor, high field enhancement resonances with nonlinear and active/gain materials such as gallium arsenide will lead to new classes of active optical devices.

We examined the spectral responsivity of a 1.77 μm thick type-II superlattice based long-wave infrared detector in combination with metallic nanoantennas. Coupling between the Fabry-Pérot cavity formed by the semiconductor layer and the resonant nanoantennas on its surface enables spectral selectivity, while also increasing peak quantum efficiency to over 50%. Electromagnetic simulations reveal that this high responsivity is a direct result of field-enhancement in the absorber layer, enabling significant absorption in spite of the absorber's subwavelength thickness. Notably, thinning of the absorbing material could ultimately yield lower photodetector noise through a reduction in dark current while improving photocarrier collection efficiency. The temperature- and incident-angle-independent spectral response observed in these devices allows for operation over a wide range of temperatures and optical systems. This detector paradigm demonstrates potential benefits to device performance with applications throughout the infrared.

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Si-MOS based QD qubits are attractive due to their similarity to the current semiconductor industry. We introduce a highly tunable MOS foundry compatible qubit design that couples an electrostatic quantum dot (QD) with an implanted donor. We show for the first time coherent two-axis control of a two-electron spin logical qubit that evolves under the QD-donor exchange interaction and the hyperfine interaction with the donor nucleus. The two interactions are tuned electrically with surface gate voltages to provide control of both qubit axes. Qubit decoherence is influenced by charge noise, which is of similar strength as epitaxial systems like GaAs and Si/SiGe.

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Metamaterial dielectric resonators represent a promising path toward low-loss metamaterials at optical frequencies. In this paper we utilize perturbations of high symmetry resonator geometries, such as cubes, either to overlap the electric and magnetic dipole resonances, thereby enabling directional scattering and Huygens' metasurfaces, or to induce couplings between the otherwise orthogonal resonator modes to achieve high-quality factor Fano resonances. Our results are fully scalable across any frequency bands where high-permittivity dielectric materials are available, including microwave, THz, and infrared frequencies.

Enhancement-mode Si/SiGe electron quantum dots have been pursued extensively by many groups for their potential in quantum computing. Most of the reported dot designs utilize multiple metal-gate layers and use Si/SiGe heterostructures with Ge concentration close to 30%. Here, we report the fabrication and low-temperature characterization of quantum dots in the Si/Si0.8Ge0.2 heterostructures using only one metal-gate layer. We find that the threshold voltage of a channel narrower than 1 μm increases as the width decreases. The higher threshold can be attributed to the combination of quantum confinement and disorder. We also find that the lower Ge ratio used here leads to a narrower operational gate bias range. The higher threshold combined with the limited gate bias range constrains the device design of lithographic quantum dots. We incorporate such considerations in our device design and demonstrate a quantum dot that can be tuned from a single dot to a double dot. The device uses only a single metal-gate layer, greatly simplifying device design and fabrication.

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Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) modes provide a new path for tailoring light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. In this paper, we analyze a strongly coupled system at near-infrared frequencies comprising plasmonic metamaterial resonators and ENZ modes supported by degenerately doped semiconductor nanolayers. In strongly coupled systems that combine optical cavities and intersubband transitions, the polariton splitting (i.e., the ratio of Rabi frequency to bare cavity frequency) scales with the square root of the wavelength, thus favoring the long-wavelength regime. In contrast, we observe that the polariton splitting in ENZ/metamaterial resonator systems increases linearly with the thickness of the nanolayer supporting the ENZ modes. In this work, we employ an indium-tin-oxide nanolayer and observe a large experimental polariton splitting of approximately 30% in the near-infrared. This approach opens up many promising applications, including nonlinear optical components and tunable optical filters based on controlling the polariton splitting by adjusting the frequency of the ENZ mode.

We use a cryogenic high-electron-mobility transistor circuit to amplify the current from a single electron transistor, allowing for demonstration of single shot readout of an electron spin on a single P donor in Si with 100 kHz bandwidth and a signal to noise ratio of ∼9. In order to reduce the impact of cable capacitance, the amplifier is located adjacent to the Si sample, at the mixing chamber stage of a dilution refrigerator. For a current gain of ∼ 2.7 × 10 3, the power dissipation of the amplifier is 13 μW, the bandwidth is ∼ 1.3 MHz, and for frequencies above 300 kHz the current noise referred to input is ≤ 70 fA/ Hz. With this amplification scheme, we are able to observe coherent oscillations of a P donor electron spin in isotopically enriched 28Si with 96% visibility.

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We use planar metamaterial resonators to enhance by more than two orders of magnitude the near infrared second harmonic generation obtained from intersubband transitions in III-Nitride heterostructures. The improvement arises from two factors: employing an asymmetric double quantum well design and aligning the resonators' cross-polarized resonances with the intersubband transition energies. The resulting nonlinear metamaterial operates at wavelengths where single photon detection is available, and represents a different class of sources for quantum photonics related phenomena.

Deterministic control over the location and number of donors is crucial to donor spin quantum bits (qubits) in semiconductor based quantum computing. A focused ion beam is used to implant close to quantum dots. Ion detectors are integrated next to the quantum dots to sense the implants. The numbers of ions implanted can be counted to a precision of a single ion. Regular coulomb blockade is observed from the quantum dots. Charge offsets indicative of donor ionization, are observed in devices with counted implants.

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We present transport measurements of silicon MOS split gate structures with and without Sb implants. We observe classical point contact (PC) behavior that is free of any pronounced unintentional resonances at liquid He temperatures. The implanted device has resonances superposed on the PC transport indicative of transport through the Sb donors. We fit the differential conductance to a rectangular tunnel barrier model with a linear barrier height dependence on source-drain voltage and non-linear dependence on gate bias. Effects such as Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling and image charge barrier lowering (ICBL) are considered. Barrier heights and widths are estimated for the entire range of relevant biases. The barrier heights at the locations of some of the resonances for the implanted tunnel barrier are between 15-20 meV, which are consistent with transport through shallow partially hybridized Sb donors. The dependence of width and barrier height on gate voltage is found to be linear over a wide range of gate bias in the split gate geometry but deviates considerably when the barrier becomes large and is not described completely by standard 1D models such as FN or ICBL effects.

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Conversion of plane waves to surface waves prior to detection allows key advantages in changes to the architecture of the detector pixels in a focal plane array. We have integrated subwavelength patterned metal nanoantennas with various detector materials to incorporate these advantages: midwave infrared indium gallium arsenide antimonide detectors and longwave infrared graphene detectors. Nanoantennas offer a means to make infrared detectors much thinner by converting incoming plane waves to more tightly bound and concentrated surface waves. Thinner architectures reduce both dark current and crosstalk for improved performance. For graphene detectors, which are only one or two atomic layers thick, such field concentration is a necessity for usable device performance, as single pass plane wave absorption is insufficient. Using III-V detector material, we reduced thickness by over an order of magnitude compared to traditional devices. We will discuss Sandia's motivation for these devices, which go beyond simple improvement in traditional performance metrics. The simulation methodology and design rules will be discussed in detail. We will also offer an overview of the fabrication processes required to make these subwavelength structures on at times complex underlying devices based on III-V detector material or graphene on silicon or silicon carbide. Finally, we will present our latest infrared detector characterization results for both III-V and graphene structures.

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(Figure Presented) We present the design, realization, and characterization of optical strong light-matter coupling between intersubband transitions within a semiconductor heterostructures and planar metamaterials in the near-infrared spectral range. The strong light-matter coupling entity consists of a III-nitride intersubband superlattice heterostructure, providing a two-level system with a transition energy of ∼0.8 eV (λ ∼1.55 μm) and a planar "dogbone" metamaterial structure. As the bare metamaterial resonance frequency is varied across the intersubband resonance, a clear anticrossing behavior is observed in the frequency domain. This strongly coupled entity could enable the realization of electrically tunable optical filters, a new class of efficient nonlinear optical materials, or intersubband-based light-emitting diodes.

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The reflection of an optical wave from metal, arising from strong interactions between the optical electric field and the free carriers of the metal, is accompanied by a phase reversal of the reflected electric field. A far less common route to achieving high reflectivity exploits strong interactions between the material and the optical magnetic field to produce a “magnetic mirror” that does not reverse the phase of the reflected electric field. At optical frequencies, the magnetic properties required for strong interaction can be achieved only by using artificially tailored materials. Here, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the magnetic mirror behavior of a low-loss all-dielectric metasurface at infrared optical frequencies through direct measurements of the phase and amplitude of the reflected optical wave. The enhanced absorption and emission of transverse-electric dipoles placed close to magnetic mirrors can lead to exciting new advances in sensors, photodetectors, and light sources.

The integration of optics for efficient light delivery and the collection of fluorescence from trapped ions in surface electrode ion traps is a key component to achieving scalability for quantum information processing. Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) present a promising approach as compared to bulk optics because of their small physical profile and their flexibility in tailoring the optical wavefront. The precise alignment of the optics for coupling fluorescence to and from the ions, however, poses a particular challenge. Excitation and manipulation of the ions requires a high degree of optical access, significantly restricting the area available for mounting components. The ion traps, DOEs, and other components are compact, constraining the manipulation of various elements. For efficient fluorescence collection from the ions the DOE must be have a large numerical aperture (NA), which results in greater sensitivity to misalignment. The ion traps are sensitive devices, a mechanical approach to alignment such as contacting the trap and using precision motors to back-off a set distance not only cannot achieve the desired alignment precision, but risks damage to the ion trap. We have developed a non-contact precision optical alignment technique. We use line foci produced by off-axis linear Fresnel zone plates (FZPs) projected on alignment targets etched in the top metal layer of the ion trap and demonstrate micron-level alignment accuracy. © 2014 SPIE.

Nanoantennas are an enabling technology for visible to terahertz components and may be used with a variety of detector materials. We have integrated subwavelength patterned metal nanoantennas with various detector materials for infrared detection: midwave infrared indium gallium arsenide antimonide detectors, longwave infrared graphene detectors, and shortwave infrared germanium detectors. Nanoantennas offer a means to make infrared detectors much thinner, thus lowering the dark current and improving performance. The nanoantenna converts incoming plane waves to more tightly bound and concentrated surface waves. The active material only needs to extend as far as these bound fields. In the case of graphene detectors, which are only one or two atomic layers thick, such field concentration is a necessity for usable device performance, as single pass absorption is insufficient. The nanoantenna is thus the enabling component of these thin devices. However nanoantenna integration and fabrication vary considerably across these platforms as do the considerations taken into account during design. Here we discuss the motivation for these devices and show examples for the three material systems. Characterization results are included for the midwave infrared detector. © 2014 SPIE.

We report Pauli blockade in a multielectron silicon metal–oxide–semiconductor double quantum dot with an integrated charge sensor. The current is rectified up to a blockade energy of 0.18 ± 0.03 meV. The blockade energy is analogous to singlet–triplet splitting in a two electron double quantum dot. Built-in imbalances of tunnel rates in the MOS DQD obfuscate some edges of the bias triangles. A method to extract the bias triangles is described, and a numeric rate-equation simulation is used to understand the effect of tunneling imbalances and finite temperature on charge stability (honeycomb) diagram, in particular the identification of missing and shifting edges. A bound on relaxation time of the triplet-like state is also obtained from this measurement.

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We design and fabricate arrays of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) to realize neutral atom micro-traps for quantum computing. We initialize a single atom at each site of an array of optical tweezer traps for a customized spatial configuration. Each optical trapping volume is tailored to ensure only one or zero trapped atoms. Specifically designed DOEs can define an arbitrary optical trap array for initialization and improve collection efficiency in readout by introducing high-numerical aperture, low-profile optical elements into the vacuum environment. We will discuss design and fabrication details of ultra-fast collection DOEs integrated monolithically and coaxially with tailored DOEs that establish an optical array of micro-traps through far-field propagation. DOEs, as mode converters, modify the lateral field at the front focal plane of an optical assembly and transform it to the desired field pattern at the back focal plane of the optical assembly. We manipulate the light employing coherent or incoherent addition with judicious placement of phase and amplitude at the lens plane. This is realized through a series of patterning, etching, and depositing material on the lens substrate. The trap diameter, when this far-field propagation approach is employed, goes as 2.44λF/#, where the F/# is the focal length divided by the diameter of the lens aperture. The 8-level collection lens elements in this presentation are, to our knowledge, the fastest diffractive elements realized; ranging from F/1 down to F/0.025. © 2012 SPIE.

Resonant subwavelength gratings have been designed and fabricated as wavelength-specific reflectors for application as a rotary position encoder utilizing ebeam based photolithography. The first grating design used a two-dimensional layout to provide polarization insensitivity with separate layers for the grating and waveguide. The resulting devices had excellent pattern fidelity and the resonance peaks and widths closely matched the expected results. Unfortunately, the gratings were particularly angle sensitive and etch depth errors led to shifts in the center wavelength of the resonances. A second design iteration resulted in a double grating period to reduce the angle sensitivity as well as different materials and geometry; the grating and waveguide being the same layer. The inclusion of etch stop layers provided more accurate etch depths; however, the tolerance to changes in the grating duty cycle was much tighter. Results from these devices show the effects of small errors in the pattern fidelity. The fabrication process flows for both iterations of devices will be reviewed as well as the performance of the fabricated devices. A discussion of the relative merits of the various design choices provides insight into the importance of fabrication considerations during the design stage. © 2012 SPIE.

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We demonstrate the effects of integrating a nanoantenna to a midwave infrared (MWIR) focal plane array (FPA). We model an antenna-coupled photodetector with a nanoantenna fabricated in close proximity to the active material of a photodetector. This proximity allows us to take advantage of the concentrated plasmonic fields of the nanoantenna. The role of the nanoantenna is to convert free-space plane waves into surface plasmons bound to a patterned metal surface. These plasmonic fields are concentrated in a small volume near the metal surface. Field concentration allows for a thinner layer of absorbing material to be used in the photodetector design and promises improvements in cutoff wavelength and dark current (higher operating temperature). While the nanoantenna concept may be applied to any active photodetector material, we chose to integrate the nanoantenna with an InAsSb photodiode. The geometry of the nanoantenna-coupled detector is optimized to give maximal carrier generation in the active region of the photodiode, and fabrication processes must be altered to accommodate the nanoantenna structure. The intensity profiles and the carrier generation rates in the photodetector active layers are determined by finite element method simulations, and iteration between optical nanoantenna simulation and detector modeling is used to optimize the device structure. © 2012 SPIE.

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Membrane projection lithography is extended from a single layer fabrication technique to a multilayer process, adding polymeric backfill and planarization after each layer is completed. Unaligned contact lithography is used as a rapid prototyping tool to aid in process development, patterning resist membranes in seconds without requiring long e-beam write times. The fabricated multilayer structures show good resistance to solvent attack from subsequent process steps and demonstrate in-plane and out of plane multilayer metallic inclusions in a dielectric host, which is a critical step in the path to develop bulklike metamaterials at optical frequencies.

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Interaction between metamaterial elements and intersubband transitions in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells is observed in the mid-infrared. Transmission measurements were performed through metamaterial arrays, each having a different resonance frequency. © 2011 OSA.

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A tandem interferometer system measuring the absolute phase and amplitude of planar split-ring resonators fabricated on a BaF2 substrate with a designed resonance at 10.5 μm is presented. © 2010 Optical Society of America.

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We present the bandwidth enhancement of an EAM monolithically integrated with two mutually injection-locked lasers. An improvement in the modulation efficiency and bandwidth are shown with mutual injection locking.

We present a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) composed of two strongly coupled lasers. This PIC utilizes the dynamics of mutual injection locking to increase the relaxation resonance frequency from 3 GHz to beyond 30 GHz.

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This report summarizes a 3-year LDRD program at Sandia National Laboratories exploring mutual injection locking of composite-cavity lasers for enhanced modulation responses. The program focused on developing a fundamental understanding of the frequency enhancement previously demonstrated for optically injection locked lasers. This was then applied to the development of a theoretical description of strongly coupled laser microsystems. This understanding was validated experimentally with a novel 'photonic lab bench on a chip'.

We report low-temperature transport measurements of a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) double quantum dot (DQD). In contrast to previously reported measurements of DQD's in Si MOS structures, our device has a lateral gate geometry very similar to that used by Petta et al. to demonstrate coherent manipulation of single electron spins. This gate design provides a high degree of tunability, allowing for independent control over individual dot occupation and tunnel barriers, as well as the ability to use nearby constrictions to sense dot charge occupation. Comparison of experimentally extracted capacitances between the dot and nearby gates with electrostatic modeling demonstrates the presence of disorder and the ability to partially compensate for this disorder by adjustment of gate voltages. We experimentally show gate-controlled tuning of the interdot coupling over a wide range of energies, an important step towards potential quantum computing applications.

We fabricated a split-gate defined point contact in a double gate enhancement mode Si-MOS device, and implanted Sb donor atoms using a self-aligned process. E-beam lithography in combination with a timed implant gives us excellent control over the placement of dopant atoms, and acts as a stepping stone to focused ion beam implantation of single donors. Our approach allows us considerable latitude in experimental design in-situ. We have identified two resonance conditions in the point contact conductance as a function of split gate voltage. Using tunneling spectroscopy, we probed their electronic structure as a function of temperature and magnetic field. We also determine the capacitive coupling between the resonant feature and several gates. Comparison between experimental values and extensive quasi-classical simulations constrain the location and energy of the resonant level. We discuss our results and how they may apply to resonant tunneling through a single donor.

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Metamaterials form a new class of artificial electromagnetic materials that provides the device designer with the ability to manipulate the flow of electromagnetic energy in ways that are not achievable with naturally occurring materials. However, progress toward practical implementation of metamaterials, particularly at infrared and visible frequencies, has been hampered by a combination of absorptive losses; the narrow band nature of the resonant metamaterial response; and the difficulty in fabricating fully 3-dimensional structures. They describe the progress of a recently initiated program at Sandia National Laboratories directed toward the development of practical 3D metamaterials operating in the thermal infrared. They discuss their analysis of fundamental loss limits for different classes of metamaterials. In addition, they discuss new design approaches that they are pursuing which reduce the reliance on metallic structures in an effort to minimize ohmic losses.

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We present a new fabrication technique called Membrane Projection Lithography for the production of three-dimensional metamaterials at infrared wavelengths. Using this technique, multilayer infrared metamaterials that include both in-plane and out-of-plane resonators can be fabricated.

In this work, we describe the most recent progress towards the device modeling, fabrication, testing and system integration of active resonant subwavelength grating (RSG) devices. Passive RSG devices have been a subject of interest in subwavelength-structured surfaces (SWS) in recent years due to their narrow spectral response and high quality filtering performance. Modulating the bias voltage of interdigitated metal electrodes over an electrooptic thin film material enables the RSG components to act as actively tunable high-speed optical filters. The filter characteristics of the device can be engineered using the geometry of the device grating and underlying materials. Using electron beam lithography and specialized etch techniques, we have fabricated interdigitated metal electrodes on an insulating layer and BaTiO3 thin film on sapphire substrate. With bias voltages of up to 100V, spectral red shifts of several nanometers are measured, as well as significant changes in the reflected and transmitted signal intensities around the 1.55um wavelength. Due to their small size and lack of moving parts, these devices are attractive for high speed spectral sensing applications. We will discuss the most recent device testing results as well as comment on the system integration aspects of this project. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.