Theoretical studies of inter-dot potential barrier modulation in quantum-dot cellular automata

Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is being investigated as a possible alternative for encoding and processing binary information in an attempt to realize dramatic improvements in device density and processing speed over conventional CMOS design. The binary information is encoded in the locations of two excess electrons in a system of four quantum dots. The dots are arranged with each on a corner of a square, and electrons are able to quantum-mechanically tunnel between dots. Each set of four dots and two excess electrons constitutes a QCA cell. Coulomb repulsion ensures that the electrons will tend to occupy antipodal sites, giving two possible polarizations, or lowest energy ground states for a QCA cell. The electrons would tend to align along one diagonal or the other. Arrangements of QCA cells can be used to pass along input binary information and perform necessary logic operations on the input signal.When electrons tunnel back and forth between dots, it is possible they will occupy excited states in the dots. Two undesirable effects result from this: 1) Energy will be dissipated to the environment and cause thermal heating, and 2) it is possible a cell could become locked in a metastable state, which may be a local energy minimum, but is not one of the ground state polarizations we desire. Through the modulation of the heights of the inter-dot potential barriers, it would be possible to allow electrons to more easily tunnel between dots. This would help prevent the system from reaching excited states. The time variance in the heights of the potential barriers must be greater than the time it takes for the electrons to tunnel between dots, thus, effectively clocking the QCA device.We present theoretical studies of controlling the inter-dot potential barriers in a QCA device using an electric field due to electrostatically charged rods. The amount of charge on the rods is varied in time to increase and decrease the electric field, which will raise and lower the inter-dot potential barriers as desired. Different arrangements of rods provide different time-dependent behavior in the electric field, which may be useful depending on the arrangements of QCA cells required to make a logic device.Department of Physics and AstronomyThesis (M.S.