We report the elaboration of SiN
x
-passivated chemically assembled single-electron transistors (SETs) by bottom-up processes involving electroless Au plating and the chemisorption of Au nanoparticles. With a Au top-gate electrode, the SiN
x
-passivated SETs showed a clear Coulomb diamond at 9 K and the top-gate capacitance was 17 times larger than the side-gate capacitance. Moreover, Coulomb oscillation and the Coulomb diamond were observed even at 160 K. Thus, planar technology is applicable to chemically assembled SETs.
Single-electron transistors (SETs) are sub-10-nm scale electronic devices based on conductive Coulomb islands sandwiched between double-barrier tunneling barriers. Chemically assembled SETs with alkanethiol-protected Au nanoparticles show highly stable Coulomb diamonds and two-input logic operations. The combination of bottom-up and top-down processes used to form the passivation layer is vital for realizing multi-gate chemically assembled SET circuits, as this combination enables us to connect conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies via planar processes. Here, three-input gate exclusive-OR (XOR) logic operations are demonstrated in passivated chemically assembled SETs. The passivation layer is a hybrid bilayer of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and pulsed laser deposited (PLD) aluminum oxide (AlO), and top-gate electrodes were prepared on the hybrid passivation layers. Top and two-side-gated SETs showed clear Coulomb oscillation and diamonds for each of the three available gates, and three-input gate XOR logic operation was clearly demonstrated. These results show the potential of chemically assembled SETs to work as logic devices with multi-gate inputs using organic and inorganic hybrid passivation layers.
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