Electron-Hole Confinement Symmetry in Silicon Quantum Dots.

We report electrical transport measurements on a gate-defined ambipolar quantum dot in intrinsic silicon. The ambipolarity allows its operation as either an electron or a hole quantum dot of which we change the dot occupancy by 20 charge carriers in each regime. Electron-hole confinement symmetry is evidenced by the extracted gate capacitances and charging energies. The results demonstrate that ambipolar quantum dots offer great potential for spin-based quantum information processing, since confined electrons and holes can be compared and manipulated in the same crystalline environment.