We report the demonstration of a low-disorder silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (Si MOS) quantum dot containing a tunable number of electrons from zero to N=27. The observed evolution of addition energies with parallel magnetic field reveals the spin filling of electrons into valley-orbit states. We find a splitting of 0.10 meV between the ground and first excited states, consistent with theory and placing a lower bound on the valley splitting. Our results provide optimism for the realization in the near future of spin qubits based on silicon quantum dots.
@article{arxiv.1103.2895,
title = {Spin filling of valley-orbit states in a silicon quantum dot},
author = {W. H. Lim and C. H. Yang and F. A. Zwanenburg and A. S. Dzurak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.2895},
year = {2011}
}