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Using standard microfabrication techniques it is now possible to construct devices, which appear to reliably manipulate electrons one at a time. These devices have potential use as building blocks in quantum computing devices, or as a standard of electrical current derived only from a frequency and the fundamental charge. To date the error rate in semiconductor 'tuneable-barrier' pump devices, those which show most promise for high frequency operation, have not been tested in detail. We present high accuracy measurements of the current from an etched GaAs quantum dot pump, operated at zero source-drain bias voltage with a single AC-modulated gate driving the pump cycle. By comparison with a reference current derived from primary standards, we show that the electron transfer accuracy is better than 15 parts per million. High-resolution studies of the dependence of the pump current on the quantum dot tuning parameters also reveal possible deviations from a model used to describe the pumping cycle.

We present experimental results of high-frequency quantized charge pumping through a quantum dot formed by the electric field arising from applied voltages in a GaAs/AlGaAs system in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field B. Clear changes are observed in the quantized current plateaus as a function of applied magnetic field. We report on the robustness in the length of the quantized plateaus and improvements in the quantization as a result of the applied B field.