Fabrication and characterization of Au island single-electron transistors with CrOx step edge junctions

Abstract

Single-electron transistors fabricated using Au islands and CrOx resistive microstrips are reported. To investigate the occurrence of Coulomb blockade in these devices, three types of device designs have been tested. Typical single-electron behavior, conductance modulation by the gate, is observed in the devices which had small overlap area with the gold island. Electron transport mechanism of CrOx resistors is discussed and a hypothesis of the formation of step edge junctions at the edges of granular metal microstrips is given as the explanation for the experimental results.