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

David G. Rees (1) , Philip Glasson (1) , Luke R. Simkins (1) , Vladimir Antonov (1) , Peter G. Frayne (1) , Philip J. Meeson (1) , Michael J. Lea (1) , Eddy Collin (2)

1 Department of Physics [Egham]
2 NEEL - UBT - Ultra-basses températures

Metastable electron traps and two-level systems are common in solid-state devices and lead to background charge movement and charge noise in single-electron and singleCooper-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 two-level system to a quasiparticle trap.

Domaines: Systèmes mésoscopiques et effet Hall quantique [cond-mat.mes-hall]

David G. Rees, Philip Glasson, Luke R. Simkins, Vladimir Antonov, Peter G. Frayne, et al.. Thermally excited tunneling from a metastable electronic state in a single-Cooper-pair transistor. Applied Physics Letters, 2008, 93, pp.173508. ⟨10.1063/1.3012374⟩. ⟨hal-00917408⟩