Analytical Study of 1D Monocrystal Graphene Island based Single Electron Transistor (SET)

Abstract

Single Electron Transistor (SET) devices are mostly similar to conventional FET. In SET, there is an island in place of a channel. By applying precise gate and drain voltages, electron tunnels from the source-to-island-to-drain terminal. These currents are discrete as there are junction capacitances and thermal energy conditions, also known as Coulomb Blockade (CB) effect. In this paper, SET with graphene ID crystal is used as an island and its I-V characteristics are analytically examined by varying different parameters. The master equation technique is used to solve for electron tunneling rate calculation. The electron energy state in the island is assumed to be continuous. This paper is an analytical proof of concept that a SET can be designed with novel nanostructures. In the result, the coulomb blockade effect is demonstrated by drain current and gate-to-source voltage relation. The drain current increases with the island crystal length. The electric current is nearly constant during the on-period for smaller island length size. The result shows that the drain current is very high at a temperature above 70K which makes graphene monocrystal island SET a low-temperature device. Furthermore, the result shows that better current or CB control can be achieved by introducing a secondary gate.