Reconfigurable logic devices on a single dopant atom - Operation up to a full adder by using electrical spectroscopy

A silicon field-effect transistor is operated as a logic circuit by electrically addressing the ground and excited electronic states of an embedded single dopant atom. Experimental results - complemented by analytical and computational calculations - are presented. First, we show how a complete set of binary logic gates can be realized on the same hardware. Then, we show that these gates can be operated in parallel on the very same dopant up to the logic level of a full adder. To use the device not as a switch but as a full logic circuit, we make essential use of the excited electronic states of the dopant and of the ability to shift their energy by gating. The experimental ability to use two channels to measure the current flowing through the device and the conductance (dI/dV) allows for a robust reading of the output of the logic operations.