Ultrafast Emission and Detection of a Single-Electron Gaussian Wave Packet: A Theoretical Study

Abstract

Generating and detecting a prescribed single-electron state is an important step towards solid-state fermion optics. We propose how to generate an electron in a Gaussian state, using a quantum-dot pump with gigahertz operation and realistic parameters. With the help of a strong magnetic field, the electron occupies a coherent state in the pump, insensitive to the details of nonadiabatic evolution. The state changes during the emission from the pump, governed by competition between the Landauer-Buttiker traversal time and the passage time. When the former is much shorter than the latter, the emitted state is a Gaussian wave packet. The Gaussian packet can be identified by using a dynamical potential barrier, with a resolution reaching the Heisenberg minimal uncertainty $\hbar/2$.