Etching process of narrow wire and application to tunable-barrier electron pump

Abstract: Single electron sources have been studied as a device to establish an electric current standard for 30 years and recently as an on-demand coherent source for Fermion quantum optics. In order to construct the single electron source on a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), it is often necessary to fabricate a sub-micron wire by etching. We have established techniques to make the wire made of the fragile 2DEG by combining photolithography and electron beam lithography with one-step photoresist coating, which enables us to etch fine and coarse structures simultaneously. It has been demonstrated that a single electron source fabricated on the narrow wire pumps fixed number of electrons per one cycle with radio frequency. The fabrication technique improves the lithography process with lower risk to damage the 2DEG and is applicable to etching of other materials and dry etching.