Dr Jon Prance at the Lancaster Quantum Technology Centre. Credit: Image courtesy of Lancaster University
The 1st ever measurement of the temp of electrons in a nanoelectronic device a few thousandths of a degree above 0K was demonstrated in a joint research project performed by Lancaster University, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, and Aivon Ltd. The team managed to make the electrons in a circuit on a silicon chip colder than had previously been achieved. Dr Rich Haley said: “This is a notable achievement in that the team has finally broken through the 4 millikelvin barrier, which has been the record in such structures for over 15 years.”
Although it has long been possible to cool samples of bulk metals even below 1 millikelvin, it has proved very difficult to transfer this temperature to electrons in small electronic devices, mainly because the interaction between the conducting electrons and the crystal lattice becomes extremely weak at low temperatures. By combining state-of-the-art micro and nanofabrication and pioneering measurement approaches the team realized ultralow electron temperatures reaching 3.7 millikelvin in a nanoelectronic electron tunnelling device.
This breakthrough paves the way towards sub-millikelvin nanoelectronic circuits and is another step on the way to develop new quantum technologies including quantum computers and sensors. In general, many high sensitivity magnetic field sensors and radiation detectors require low temperatures simply to reduce detrimental thermal noise. This work marks the creation of a key enabling technology which will facilitate R&D in nanoscience, solid-state physics, materials science and quantum technologies. The demonstrated nanoelectronic device is a so-called primary thermometer, i.e., a thermometer which requires no calibration.
This makes the technology very attractive for low temperature instrumentation applications and metrology. Dr Jon Prance of the Lancaster Quantum Technology Centre said: “Not only have we measured the coldest ever nanoelectronics temperature, but we have also demonstrated techniques which open the door to even lower temperatures.”
VTT is looking into possibilities together with BlueFors Cryogenics to commercialise the primary thermometer component. http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=160418&CultureCode=en
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