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Phys. Rev. B 79, 045406 (2009) [10 pages]

Addition spectra of Wigner islands of electrons on superfluid helium

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Emmanuel Rousseau*, Dmitri Ponarin†, Likourgos Hristakos‡, Olivier Avenel, Eric Varoquaux, and Yuri Mukharsky
Service de Physique de l’État Condensé Centre de Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France

Received 8 August 2008; published 12 January 2009

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We present here an experimental study of Wigner islands formed by electrons floating over helium. Electrons are trapped electrostatically in a mesoscopic structure covered with a helium film, behaving as a quantum dot in the near-classical limit. By removing electrons one by one, we are able to find the addition spectrum, i.e., the energy required to add (or extract) one electron from the trap with occupation number N. Experimental addition spectra are compared with Monte Carlo simulations for the actual trap geometry, confirming the ordered state of electrons over helium in the island.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.79.045406
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.79.045406
PACS:
74.78.Na, 73.21.Fg

*Present address: Laboratoire EM2C-CNRS-École Centrale Paris 92295 Châtenay-Malabry, France; em.rousseau@gmail.com

†Present address: Chemistry Dept., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.

‡Present address: Science Faculty, American Community Schools of Athens, 129 Aghias Paraskevis, 152 34 Halandri, Athens, Greece.

 
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