Room temperature observation of size dependent single electron tunneling ina sub-2 nm size tunable Pt nanoparticle embedded metal–oxide–semiconductorstructure

Abstract

In this paper we report size dependent single electron tunneling behavior at room temperature ina metal–oxide–semiconductor structure with uniformly sized Pt nanoparticles embedded in anAl2O3 dielectric. The sub-2 nm size Pt nanoparticles sandwiched between theAl2O3 layers are deposited by a unique tilted target sputter deposition technique which producesmetal nanoparticles as small as 0.5 nm with narrow size distributions at roomtemperature. The charging behavior of these nanoparticles shows clear singleelectron tunneling peaks due to the Coulomb blockade effect. Moreover, the averagesingle electron addition energy and height of the single electron tunneling currentstrongly depend on the size of the Pt nanoparticle. These controllable single electrontunneling behaviors suggest a new route for fabrication of single electron devices.