title: Impact of small-angle scattering on ballistic transport in quantum dots.
abstract: Disorder increasingly affects performance as electronic devices are reduced in size. The ionized dopants used to populate a device with electrons are particularly problematic, leading to unpredictable changes in the behavior of devices such as quantum dots each time they are cooled for use. We show that a quantum dot can be used as a highly sensitive probe of changes in disorder potential and that, by removing the ionized dopants and populating the dot electrostatically, its electronic properties become reproducible with high fidelity after thermal cycling to room temperature. Our work demonstrates that the disorder potential has a significant, perhaps even dominant, influence on the electron dynamics, with important implications for "ballistic" transport in quantum dots.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: See
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pilgrim
authors.forename: B C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Scannell
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Klochan
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aagesen
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Lindelof
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Farrer
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Micolich