Abstract
The ability to controllably position single atoms inside materials is key for the ultimate fabrication of devices with functionalities governed by atomic-scale properties. Single bismuth dopant atoms in silicon provide an ideal case study in view of proposals for single-dopant quantum bits. However, bismuth is the least soluble pnictogen in silicon, meaning that the dopant atoms tend to migrate out of position during sample growth. Here, we demonstrate epitaxial growth of thin silicon films doped with bismuth. We use atomic-resolution aberration-corrected imaging to view the as-grown dopant distribution and then to controllably position single dopants inside the film. Atomic-scale quantum-mechanical calculations corroborate the experimental findings. These results indicate that the scanning transmission electron microscope is of particular interest for assembling functional materials atom-by-atom because it offers both real-time monitoring and atom manipulation. We envision electron-beam manipulation of atoms inside materials as an achievable route to controllable assembly of structures of individual dopants.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 5873-5879 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | ACS Nano |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 26 2018 |
Funding
This article has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of the manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). This work (B.M.H., P.C.S., J.S., T.S.H.) was partially sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy. DFT calculations (H.S., S.T.P.) were supported by DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-09ER46554. Calculations were performed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02−05CH11231. Technique development at variable accelerating voltages (A.R.L.) was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. STEM imaging at 60 and 100 kV was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
Keywords
- atomic positioning
- bismuth in silicon
- dopants
- quantum computing
- quantum materials
- scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)
- single-atom manipulation