Coulomb blockade phenomena observed in supported metallic nanoislands

I-Po Hong,François Patthey,Christophe Brun,Wolf-Dieter Schneider,Marina Pivetta

doi:10.3389/fphy.2013.00013

Abstract

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article Front. Phys., 27 September 2013 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2013.00013

Highlights

The study of Coulomb blockade (CB) phenomena in nanostructures is a very attractive area of condensed matter physics, because single electron electronics is considered to have a high potential for basic research and for technological applications [1,2,3,4,5]
The electron transport through such a doublebarrier tunnel junctions (DBTJ) can be separated into three different regimes [16]: if the islandsubstrate resistance R1 RQ, the whole system corresponds to a single junction; if R1 is of the order of RQ, the dynamical Coulomb blockade (DCB) regime is reached; if R1 RQ, the CB and Coulomb staircase (CS) regime is entered
From dI/dV spectra measured on top of a 2 ML NaCl film, we deduce that the gap lies within the voltage range of ±2 eV around EF, which is the energy range selected for the measurement of the dI/dV spectra of the Pb nanoislands on NaCl

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The study of Coulomb blockade (CB) phenomena in nanostructures is a very attractive area of condensed matter physics, because single electron electronics is considered to have a high potential for basic research and for technological applications [1,2,3,4,5]. The electron transport through such a DBTJ can be separated into three different regimes [16]: if the islandsubstrate resistance R1 RQ, the whole system corresponds to a single junction; if R1 is of the order of RQ, the dynamical Coulomb blockade (DCB) regime is reached; if R1 RQ, the CB and CS regime is entered These different conditions can be selectively and controllably fulfilled in our experimental setup by choosing the appropriate size of the islands (by changing the growth parameters) and the pertinent tunnel parameters, including an adjustable tip-island distance (by changing the tip-island resistance R2). In this way island-size-dependent CB gaps and CS have been unambiguously identified in the tunneling spectra obtained on the Pb quantum dots on NaCl/Ag[111]

EXPERIMENTAL

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

COULOMB BLOCKADE AND COULOMB STAIRCASE ON Pb NANOISLANDS

CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK