IV-Curves of tunnel junction arrays at lowered temperature by numerical simulation

We have numerically investigated the effect of lowered T on the performance of the Coulomb blockade thermometer, which has been demostrated to yield primary thermometry in the high T limit where thermal excitations compete with the Coulomb blockade. The thermometer is formed by an array of tunnel junctions whose differentiated IV—curve is used to determine the temperature. The IV—curves were calculated by computer simulations and we have obtained corrections to the analytic high T behaviour due to the lowered temperature.     

Disorder and the fractional quantum Hall effect

The fractional quantum Hall effect is studied in the 2D electron gas of four GaAs-Al_xGa_1?xAs heterostructures. Localization due to disorder, known to give rise to the wide integral quantum Hall plateaus, is demonstrated to inhibit the fractional effect, which is observed only in the higher mobility samples.     

Pumping of single electrons with a traveling wave

We describe the operation and performance of a one-dimensional chain of small metallic islands whose potentials are modulated in a wave-like manner. The sinusoidal voltages, applied to the gate electrodes, carry individual charges coherently through the array. In practice, the wave-like potential is induced on the gates by a surface acoustic wave (SAW) traveling on a piezoelectric substrate. The resulting transfer of charges should produce a DC current I = ± ef through the chain, where f is the frequency of the wave and the sign ofthe current depends on the value of the common DC bias of the islands as well as on the direction of the wave propagation. We observe, however, a much smaller current than expected and investigate the factors affecting the fundamental relation between the current and frequency. We demonstrate that the most harmful factor in practice is an uncompensated background charge of random nature, which usually exists in substrates and oxide barriers.     

Static susceptibility and longitudinal resonance frequency of superfluid 3He B

The static susceptibility and the longitudinal resonance frequency of superfluid ³He B have been measured at 18.7 bar from T_c to 0.27 T_c using continuous wave transverse NMR.