Single photoelectron trapping, storage, and detection in a field effect transistor

A single photoelectron can be trapped and its photoelectric charge detected\nby a source/drain channel in a transistor. Such a transistor photodetector can\nbe useful for flagging the safe arrival of a photon in a quantum repeater. The\nelectron trap can be photo-ionized and repeatedly reset for the arrival of\nsuccessive individual photons. This single photoelectron transistor (SPT)\noperating at the lambda = 1.3 mu m tele-communication band, was demonstrated by\nusing a windowed-gate double-quantum-well InGaAs/InAlAs/InP heterostructure\nthat was designed to provide near-zero electron g-factor. The g-factor\nengineering allows selection rules that would convert a photon's polarization\nto an electron spin polarization. The safe arrival of the photo-electric charge\nwould trigger the commencement of the teleportation algorithm.\n