Evaluation of the effect of fabrication tolerances on the ground-state energy of electrostatically defined quantum dots

Abstract We have investigated the precision achievable, with state-of-the-art lithography, in the fabrication of quantum dots for the realization of quantum cellular automaton cells, and we have compared it with the requirements for proper device operation. Our conclusion is that a simple ‘hole-array` approach is not feasible, and that individual tuning of each dot is necessary.