Abstract
We present three-dimensional numerical modeling results for gated Si/SiO2 quantum dot systems in the few-electron regime. In our simulations, the electrostatic confining potential results from the Poisson equation assuming a self-consistent Thomas-Fermi charge model. We find that a very thin SiO2 top insulating layer allows an effective control with single-electron confinement in quantum dots with radius less than 10nm and investigate the detailed potential and resulting charge densities. Our three-dimensional finite-element modeling tool allows future investigations of the charge coupling in gated few-electron quantum-dot cellular automata.