Microwave excitation of localized electrons in phosphorus-doped silicon single electron transistors

Abstract

We investigate the effect of microwave irradiation on the source-drain current of a silicon single electron transistor, with fixed source-drain and gate voltages, at a temperature of 4 K. The source-drain current can be increased, decreased, or even reversed by the radiation, depending on the microwave frequency and dc bias conditions. Some of the source-drain current changes take the form of sharp resonances with high quality factor. We investigate the effect of the microwave irradiation coupling method on the form of these resonances. The coupling method does not modify the center frequency of the resonances however it does alter the resonance shape. We discuss the origin of these resonant features and propose that they originate from the microwave induced spatial redistributions of localized electrons in the single electron transistor.