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Silicon Atomic Quantum Dots Enable
Beyond-CMOS Electronics
B
Robert A. Wolkow 1 , 2 , 3(
) , Lucian Livadaru 3 , Jason Pitters 2 , Marco Taucer 3 ,
Paul Piva 3 , Mark Salomons 2 , Martin Cloutier 2 , and Bruno V.C. Martins 1
1 Department of Physics, University of Alberta, 11322-89 Avenue,
Edmonton, AB T6G 2G7, Canada
rwolkow@ualberta.ca
2 National Institute for Nanotechnology, National Research Council of Canada,
11421 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, AB T6G 2M9, Canada
3 Quantum Silicon Inc., 11421 Saskatchewan Drive,
Edmonton, AB T6G 2M9, Canada
Abstract. We review our recent efforts in building atom-scale quantum-
dot cellular automata circuits on a silicon surface. Our building block
consists of silicon dangling bond on a H-Si(001) surface, which has been
shown to act as a quantum dot. First the fabrication, experimental imag-
ing, and charging character of the dangling bond are discussed. We then
show how precise assemblies of such dots can be created to form artificial
molecules. Such complex structures can be used as systems with custom
optical properties, circuit elements for quantum-dot cellular automata,
and quantum computing. Considerations on macro-to-atom connections
are discussed.
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Keywords: Silicon dangling bonds
Quantum-dot cellular automata
1 Preliminaries
There are two broad problems facing any prospective nano-scale electronic device
building block. It must have an attractive property such as to switch, store or
conduct information, but also, there must be an established architecture in which
the new entity can be deployed and wherein it will function in concert with other
elements. Nanoscale electronic device research has in few instances so far led to
functional blocks that are ready for insertion into existing device designs. In this
work we discuss a range of atom-based device concepts which, while requiring
further development before commercial products can emerge, have the great
advantage that an overall architecture is well established that calls for exactly
the type of building block we have developed.
The atomic silicon quantum dot (ASiQD) described here fits within ultra
low power schemes for beyond CMOS electronics based upon quantum dots that
have been refined over the past 2 decades. The well known quantum dot cellu-
lar automata (QCA) scheme due to Lent and co-workers [ 1 , 2 ] achieves classical
 
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