Single-electron switching effect in graphene parallel-coupled double quantum dots

Abstract

We have fabricated parallel-coupled quantum dots on single-layer graphene. The tunnel coupling between the quantum dots can be tuned by a graphene in-plane gate. Owing to the tunnel coupling, the Coulomb blockade oscillation peaks exhibit periodic shifts as the number of electron in the non-conducting side-coupled QD is changed. The result suggests the observation of the single electron switching effect, which is a prerequisite for a single photon detection scheme using parallel-coupled quantum dots.