Coulomb blockade in VLSI-compatible multiple-dot and single-dot MOSFETs

Abstract

Silicon-MOSFET-based single electron devices are promising for the future of extremely low power VLSI applications. Very narrow wire MOSFET and point contact MOSFET, which act as multiple-dot and single-dot single electron devices respectively, are fabricated using a VLSI-compatible anisotropic etching process. The Coulomb blockade phenomena in these devices have been extensively investigated. The devices show the Coulomb blockade oscillations at room temperature. At low temperatures, the coupling effects between dots play an important role in electron transport in the multiple-dot MOSFETs, while the quantum mechanical effects strongly affect the transport properties in the single-dot MOSFETs.