Transport properties of surface acoustic wave based single electron transport device in the presence of an impurity potential

We report the transport properties of a surface acoustic wave based single electron transport device, which contains an unintentional quantum dot induced by background impurity potential fluctuations. It is found that the presence of the impurity potential can cause a deviation of the acoustoelectric current from its quantized value. Through the charging effect of the quantum dot induced by the impurity, we get an approximate relationship between the applied gate voltage and its corresponding electrostatic potential barrier height, together with the Coulomb charging energy needed to add a second electron into the dynamic quantum dot. Moreover, the amplitude of the surface acoustic wave is also estimated within a simple model.