Single-electron tunneling through an individual arsenic dopant in silicon

Abstract

We report the single-electron tunneling behaviour of a silicon nanobridge where the effective island is a single As dopant atom. The device is a gated silicon nanobridge with a thickness and width of ∼20 nm, fabricated from a commercially available silicon-on-insulator wafer, which was first doped with As atoms and then patterned using a unique CMOS-compatible technique. Transport measurements reveal characteristic Coulomb diamonds whose size decreases with gate voltage. Such a dependence indicates that the island of the single-electron transistor created is an individual arsenic dopant atom embedded in the silicon lattice between the source and drain electrodes, and furthermore, can be explained by the increase of the localisation region of the electron wavefunction when the higher energy levels of the dopant As atom become occupied. The charge stability diagram of the device shows features which can be attributed to adjacent dopants, localised in the nanobridge, acting as charge traps. From the measured device transport, we have evaluated the tunnel barrier properties and obtained characteristic device capacitances. The fabrication, control and understanding of such "single-atom" devices marks a further step towards the implementation of single-atom electronics.

Особенности Измерения Поверхностного Распределения Электрического Потенциала Локальным Зондом На Основе Полевого Транзистора С Каналом-Нанопроводом

“…Среди всех устройств наиболее чувствительным полевым/зарядовым сенсором является одноэлектронный транзистор, работающий только при очень низких температурах [22]. При уменьшении разме-ра канала-нанопровода до 20 − 30 nm одноэлектронный транспорт в нем реализуется через одиночные примесные атомы [23][24][25]. Полевые транзисторы работают в широком диапазоне температур от миликельвин до комнатной температуры.…”

Probing and driving of spin and charge states in double quantum dot under the quench

“…Recently the potential of quantum information processing and quantum computation results in numerous proposals of specific material systems for creation and manipulation under spin and charged states in solids 1,2 . One of the key problems in this area is a development of efficient methods of preparation and detection of many electron states with different spin value and orientation 3–9 .…”

High Quality Factor Mechanical Resonance in a Silicon Nanowire

“…Such structures are present almost everywhere, be it a phone or a car, in the form of various micron-scale accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc. Today, when electronic devices make use of the properties of individual atoms and molecules [5][6][7], applications of nanoelectromechanical systems include ultrasensitive detection of mass, down to the mass of single molecules [8,9], force [10], pressure [11] and displacement [12,13]. By coupling nanomechanical resonators with optical and electronic transducers, it became possible to explore various quantum effects [14][15][16].…”