Marek
Kolmer
a,
Rafal
Zuzak
a,
Ghassen
Dridi
b,
Szymon
Godlewski
*a,
Christian
Joachim
bc and
Marek
Szymonski
a
aCentre for Nanometer-Scale Science and Advanced Materials, NANOSAM, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Lojasiewicza 11, 30-348 Krakow, Poland. E-mail: szymon.godlewski@uj.edu.pl
bNanosciences Group & MANA Satellite, CEMES-CNRS, 29 rue Jeanne Marvig, F-31055 Toulouse, France
cInternational Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
First published on 24th June 2015
The design and construction of the first prototypical QHC (Quantum Hamiltonian Computing) atomic scale Boolean logic gate is reported using scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) tip-induced atom manipulation on an Si(001):H surface. The NOR/OR gate truth table was confirmed by dI/dU STS (Scanning Tunnelling Spectroscopy) tracking how the surface states of the QHC quantum circuit on the Si(001):H surface are shifted according to the input logical status.
The experiments were carried out in a multi-chamber ultra-high vacuum (UHV) system with a base pressure in the low 10−10 mbar range. The scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) measurements were performed using an Omicron GmbH low-temperature STM machine operating at cryogenic temperatures of 4.5 K (liquid helium) and 77 K (liquid nitrogen) with electrochemically etched tungsten tips used as probes. A single dI/dU spectrum was obtained by differentiating several I(U) curves collected for a particular STM tip location. In the present study we have used the hydrogenated Si(001)-(2 × 1):H surface prepared using two different methods on slightly B doped p-type single crystal samples with the nominal doping density reaching approximately 1015–1016 cm−3. First, the samples were cut from commercially available Si(001) wafers (TBL Kelpin Crystals) and treated by the standard UHV surface preparation including cycles of direct current heating followed by surface hydrogenation.32 Second, we cleaved in situ under UHV conditions the samples provided by CEA-LETI Grenoble.24 Both preparation procedures result in perfectly reconstructed Si(001)-(2 × 1):H surfaces with single, atomic scale defects, mainly in the form of native DBs. Our STM/STS data show coherent results on both types of samples. The Heisenberg–Rabi oscillations were calculated by solving numerically the time dependent Schrodinger equation.†
The electronic structure of a QHC logic gate depends on the symmetry of the quantum system used and practically chosen to encode the logical inputs.33 In this work and for a Si(001):H surface, the electronic structure of a QHC logic gate is constructed atom by atom by creating dangling bond dimers (DBDs) along a single dimer row. In order to introduce moderate electronic interactions through the surface between the created DBDs, we have chosen to spatially separate the active DBDs of the structure by keeping 2 passivated Si dimers along the same row as presented in Fig. 1a. The (α,β) logical inputs are defined by attributing a logical “0” when there is no hydrogen atom on the input DBD and a logical “1” when two hydrogen atoms are saturating the input DBD (the reverse can be equally chosen leading to the dual AND/NAND Boolean logic gate). As presented in Fig. 1a, the two DBD inputs are positioned laterally and on different surface dimer rows as compared to the 3 other DBDs. For such a surface structure, the functioning of the NOR/OR QHC logic gate can be easily simulated by constructing the corresponding simple 10 quantum state Hamiltonian model system as presented in Fig. 1b with its corresponding 10 × 10 H0(α,β) Hamiltonian matrix (Fig. 1c). The H0(α,β) matrix elements are given in the caption of Fig. 1. Their order of magnitude was estimated using our previous studies on Si(001):H semi-classical electronic circuits.18 Experimentally, the gate performance was analysed using STS measurements by placing the tip centrally over the structure as schematically shown in Fig. 1d. The functioning of the NOR/OR Boolean logic gate can also be easily verified mathematically by tracking the H0(α,β) eigenstates reaching the NOR and OR reference energies depending on the logical inputs, attributing a logical “1” output in this case as presented in Fig. 1e. To characterize simply the logical output status of a QHC logic gate, a quantum “reading head” made of two |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 degenerate states is usually added to the H0(α,β) in Fig. 1 leading to the quantum system in Fig. 2a and to the corresponding 12 × 12 H(α,β) matrix presented in Fig. 2b. This quantum system can oscillate in time between |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 through the 10 × 10 H0(α,β) quantum system when one electronically coupled H0(α,β) eigenstate is resonating with |Φa〉 and |Φb〉. Starting at t = 0 from |Φa〉, we have calculated the |〈Φb|ψ(t)〉|2 Heisenberg–Rabi oscillations for the 2 different NOR and OR output reference energies and for all four (α,β) logical input configurations. With the H0(α,β) matrix elements in Fig. 1 and as presented in Fig. 2d and e, the NOR and OR gates are working perfectly since for the (α,β) input configurations leading to a logical output “1” (i.e. a fast Heisenberg–Rabi oscillations), at least one of the H0(α,β) eigenstates is resonating with |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 as presented in Fig. 1e. These time dependent Heisenberg–Rabi oscillations are too fast to be experimentally recorded in time. But they are very useful in the optimization of H0(α,β) of a given QHC gate. Then, after the optimization, the electronic coupling between |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 to a 2 atomic scale DB wire as presented in Fig. 2c opens a practical way to measure this oscillation frequency since the tunnelling current intensity between |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 through the QHC logic gate in Fig. 1 is proportional to the square of this frequency.34 In the absence of planar atomic scale interconnects shown in Fig. 2c, that would allow a planar current intensity measurement, the output status of the QHC logic gate in Fig. 1 was determined here, by locating the STM tip apex at the centre of the DBD gate structure, as already presented in Fig. 1d. Subsequently the STS dI/dU electronic spectra were recorded to follow how the surface states of this quantum circuit are shifted in energy according to the DBD binary inputs.
![]() | ||
Fig. 1 (a) Schematic representation of a QHC NOR/OR Boolean logic gate implanted on the Si(001):H surface. Grey and red balls depict hydrogenated and bare silicon atoms, respectively. (b) The oversimplified quantum graph simulating the functioning of the QHC NOR/OR Si(001):H planar logic gate presented in (a). (c) The 10 × 10 H0(α,β) matrix of the QHC gate in (b) with its logical inputs (α,β). The H0(α,β) matrix elements are: a = 0.255 eV, d = 0.455 eV, k = 0.4 eV, δ = 0.04 eV and e = 1.1 eV (see ref. 18 for the estimation of the values). The logical inputs (α,β) were attributed the values 0.0 eV and 1.0 eV to enhance the spectral functioning of the gate leading to a large level repulsion effect represented in (e). (d) The STS dI/dU experimental configuration with the STS tip apex positioned at the vertical output of the gate for recording the position of the electronic resonance of this tunnelling junction as a function of the DBD logical input configurations. (e) The variation in energy of the H0(α,β) Hamiltonian eigenvalues in (c) as a function of the logical inputs. The logical output reference energies are 1.55 eV for the NOR and 2.315 eV for the OR relative to e = 1.1 eV. The multiplicity of the H0(α,β) eigenstates is indicated in parenthesis. Notice that for (0,1), (1,0) and (1,1) logical input configurations, the remaining H0(α,β) eigenstate located at 1.55 eV is not playing any role. |
![]() | ||
Fig. 2 (a) The simplified quantum system including the NOR/OR calculating QHC circuit defined in Fig. 1b and the |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 output reading states of energy ENOR = 1.55 eV and EOR = 2.315 eV. (b) The 12 × 12 H(α,β) matrix of the quantum system in (a) including the 2 × 2 reading block at the reference energy E and the 10 × 10 H0(α,β) calculating matrix. The ε coupling matrix element is controlling the overall order of magnitude of the Heisenberg–Rabi oscillation frequency. Values up to 0.01 eV still preserve the spectral functioning of this QHC gate. (c) The planar implantation of the NOR/OR QHC logic gate with its DB surface atomic wire in charge of measuring the Heisenberg–Rabi oscillation frequency via the tunneling current intensity passing through the gate. (d, e) The results of the exact |〈Φb|ψ(t)〉 |2 calculations solving the time dependent Schrödinger equation starting at t = 0 from the |Φa〉 non-stationary state. The NOR Heisenberg–Rabi oscillations were calculated at the NOR reference output energy E = 1.55 eV and the OR ones at the OR output reference energy E = 2.315 eV for small ε = 0.001 eV electronic coupling with the |Φa〉 and |Φb〉 output reading states. For this ε value, the NOR logical “1” effective output frequency is 54 GHz and the OR one between 64 GHz and 95 GHz. The “0” NOR and OR output frequencies are all lower than 2 GHz giving a large “0” to “1” margin for measuring the tunnelling current intensity passing through this gate. |
The practical construction of the selected QHC surface atomic circuits has been done following the appropriate STM tip-induced desorption protocols obtained in our previous work.22–24 The construction of the DB gate was performed by a multistep sequential procedure involving subsequent extraction of individual DBs. The removal of a single hydrogen atom was achieved by placing the STM tip over the selected H atom with the filled state imaging settings (−2.0 V). Afterwards the feedback loop was switched off, the voltage was switched to positive values and raised to the range of 2.5–3.5 V and the hydrogen desorption was recorded as a sudden rise in the tunnelling current as described in ref. 24. This procedure was repeated step by step until the desired surface circuit was manufactured. The sequential construction of the surface structure is presented in Fig. 3. It is worth noting that the filled state STM image of the DBD shows the protrusion located symmetrically over the hydrogenated surface rows (see the left panel of Fig. 3a). When the second DBD is extracted the lobe becomes more oval and elongated along the direction of the surface rows (the left panel of Fig. 3b). The empty state STM images exhibit a remarkably different appearance.
The single DBD is observed as two bright bumps located symmetrically over the hydrogenated row with the additional elongated feature of much lower intensity lying between the bright spots forming a butterfly-like motif (the central panel of Fig. 3a). Extraction of the neighbouring DBD leads to the elongation of the structure image, but the presence of the two side lobes and the additional central one is still preserved (the central panel of Fig. 3b). This provides clear differentiation from single DBs allowing for unambiguous assignment of the constructed atomic structures and has been described in detail previously.24
Following the quantum design in Fig. 1 and applying the desorption procedure, we have constructed the surface logic gate as shown in Fig. 4a. The main part of the gate contains three DB dimers extracted within the same surface reconstruction row. The logical input is provided by the additional surface dimers located on neighbouring surface rows on both sides of the gate backbone. Switching between the logical input “1” and “0” on a given input is achieved by desorption of the two hydrogen atoms of the same dimer. It is worth noting that the reversed switching may be realized for example by the application of the procedure introduced by Labidi et al.35 Manipulating a single molecule on (or out of) the specific DB dimer is also a very attractive possibility to secure one logical input in a bi-stable way.36 The functioning of the constructed gate was tested by performing the spectroscopy measurements with the tip placed over the central part of the gate as shown in Fig. 4a.
To provide a reliable comparison, the tip was positioned at the same location for all the experiments, testing the influence of the input dimers on the logic gate logical answer. The resulting dI/dU spectrum of the NOR/OR logic gate function is shown in Fig. 4b. Notice that the experimental realization of the gate performance was performed with tunnelling currents limited to several tens of pA due to relatively poor sample conductivity at 4.5 K. Therefore, to provide additional validation of the spectroscopic results, we have constructed and subsequently characterized spectroscopically the gate also at liquid nitrogen temperature. The results obtained with higher tunnelling currents are fully consistent with the ones recorded at liquid helium and are presented in ESI Fig. S1.† The dI/dU spectra obtained for structures of the gate encoded by logical input values “11” and “00” are distinctly different in the vicinity of the empty state resonances. Whereas for “11” and “10” the peak around +1.7 V is observed, for the “00” input configuration, a new tunnelling resonance appears at +1.6 V and the previous one disappears. No important changes were observed around the valence band edge even after approaching the tip towards the surface. Superimposing all STS curves recorded for all input values of the gate in the same figure allows one to follow the displacement in energy of the surface state resonances as a function of the logical input status. As designed, the atomic scale structure is following a NOR logical truth table at +1.6 V. At the same time and from a spectral point of view, this gate structure is also performing like an OR gate for a +1.7 V as predicted theoretically and presented in Fig. 1e.
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nr01912e |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015 |