  We replace the established aluminium gates for the formation of quantum dots
in silicon with gates made from palladium. We study the morphology of both
aluminium and palladium gates with transmission electron microscopy. The native
aluminium oxide is found to be formed all around the aluminium gates, which
could lead to the formation of unintentional dots. Therefore, we report on a
novel fabrication route that replaces aluminium and its native oxide by
palladium with atomic-layer-deposition-grown aluminium oxide. Using this
approach, we show the formation of low-disorder gate-defined quantum dots,
which are reproducibly fabricated. Furthermore, palladium enables us to further
shrink the gate design, allowing us to perform electron transport measurements
in the few-electron regime in devices comprising only two gate layers, a major
technological advancement. It remains to be seen, whether the introduction of
palladium gates can improve the excellent results on electron and nuclear spin
qubits defined with an aluminium gate stack.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics