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    Coulumb Blockaded and SET

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    An electron can tunnel through a small conducting particle placed between two electrodes by hopping from one electrode onto the particle and then onto the second electrode. This hopping process is sensitive to the potential of the particle, as the charging energy of even a single electron on a small particle can be significant. If the charging energy exceeds the available thermal energy, further hopping is inhibited, creating a region of suppressed current known as the Coulomb blockade. As the applied voltage increases and allows more electrons onto the particle, additional blockades occur in a repeating pattern called a Coulomb staircase. A single electron transistor consists of an isolated metal particle coupled by tunnel junctions to two electrodes. The potential of the particle can be independently controlled by

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    Coulumb Blockaded and SET

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    An electron can tunnel through a small conducting particle placed between two electrodes by hopping from one electrode onto the particle and then onto the second electrode. This hopping process is sensitive to the potential of the particle, as the charging energy of even a single electron on a small particle can be significant. If the charging energy exceeds the available thermal energy, further hopping is inhibited, creating a region of suppressed current known as the Coulomb blockade. As the applied voltage increases and allows more electrons onto the particle, additional blockades occur in a repeating pattern called a Coulomb staircase. A single electron transistor consists of an isolated metal particle coupled by tunnel junctions to two electrodes. The potential of the particle can be independently controlled by

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    coulumb blockaded and SET

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    An electron can tunnel through a small conducting particle placed between two electrodes by hopping from one electrode onto the particle and then onto the second electrode. This hopping process is sensitive to the potential of the particle, as the charging energy of even a single electron on a small particle can be significant. If the charging energy exceeds the available thermal energy, further hopping is inhibited, creating a region of suppressed current known as the Coulomb blockade. As the applied voltage increases and allows more electrons onto the particle, additional blockades occur in a repeating pattern called a Coulomb staircase. A single electron transistor consists of an isolated metal particle coupled by tunnel junctions to two electrodes. The potential of the particle can be independently controlled by

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    20 views3 pages

    Coulumb Blockaded and SET

    Uploaded by

    Orange Hunt
    An electron can tunnel through a small conducting particle placed between two electrodes by hopping from one electrode onto the particle and then onto the second electrode. This hopping process is sensitive to the potential of the particle, as the charging energy of even a single electron on a small particle can be significant. If the charging energy exceeds the available thermal energy, further hopping is inhibited, creating a region of suppressed current known as the Coulomb blockade. As the applied voltage increases and allows more electrons onto the particle, additional blockades occur in a repeating pattern called a Coulomb staircase. A single electron transistor consists of an isolated metal particle coupled by tunnel junctions to two electrodes. The potential of the particle can be independently controlled by

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    of 3

    Coulomb Blockaded

    If a small conducting particle is placed in the middle of a tunneling gap between two electrodes,
    electrons can tunnel from the first electrode to the second by hopping from one electrode to the
    small particle and then from the small particle to the second electrode. Such an arrangement is
    shown in Fig. 7.8(a). Two electrodes are separated by a tiny gap, in which sits a small metal
    particle of radius a. This simple geometry opens up a number of interesting pathways for
    electron transfer. One possibility is that the electron tunnels straight through the whole structure,
    a process that can happen with high efficiency if energy levels are in just the right place. Such a
    process is called resonant tunneling. Here, we consider the situation where the electron hops on
    to the center particle and then hops off to the second electrode. The condition for the Coulomb
    blockade to occur is that the tunneling rate between the dot and the other electrodes must be
    sufficiently small. This hopping process is very sensitive to the potential of the center island
    because the charging energy of a small particle, even for one electron, can be quite significant. If
    the charging energy is greater than the thermally available energy, further hopping is inhibited,
    leading to a region of suppressed current in the current–voltage characteristic. Once the applied
    bias exceeds this “Coulomb blockade barrier” current can flow again. When the potential is
    increased to the point that the particle becomes charged with two electrons, a second blockade
    occurs. This process is repeated for each integer (number of electrons) occupation of the particle
    and the resulting series of steps in the current–voltage characteristic is called a Coulomb
    staircase.

    Single Electron Transistor


    The existence of a potential-dependent blockaded region in the I–V curve of double junction
    devices is the basis of a new type of transistor called the single electron transistor (SET). The
    SET consists of an isolated metal particle coupled by tunnel junctions to two microscopic
    electrodes, similar to the Coulomb blockade experiment. However, in the case of the SET, the
    isolated metal particle is capacitively coupled with a gate electrode that is used to control the
    potential of the metal particle independently. When the potential is adjusted to values that
    correspond to high conductance through the small metal particle, the transistor is on. This
    arrangement is shown schematically in Fig. 7.8(b).
    Here, we show data for another arrangement, illustrated in Fig. 7.11(a). The “particle” was
    constructed as circular disc made from conductive n-type GaAs, insulated from source and drain
    contacts by thin films of the insulating alloy AlGaAs. The potential of the dot was controlled by
    a gate insulated from the dot by a layer of InGaAs. An energy diagram (Fig. 7.11(b)) shows how
    a finite source–drain voltage (Vsd ) opens a “window” of potential for tunneling via the quantum
    dot. The alignment of the levels on the dot (i.e., energies for electronic occupation of the dot)
    relative to the Fermi energy is controlled by the gate potential. The data obtained are three
    dimensional, because the current is measured as a function of both source–drain voltage and gate
    potential. It is conventional to plot not current, but its derivative with respect to Vsd. This is the
    source– drain differential conductance, so a plot of ∂i/∂Vsd shows the regions where the SET is
    “on” (as areas of darker color in Fig. 7.12). The center of Fig. 7.12 is occupied by white
    “diamonds” where the differential conductance is zero. To understand this, take a look at the
    “Coulomb staircase” Between each step in current, the conductance is constant, so the
    differential conductance is zero. At each step, the current jumps sharply, so the differential
    conductance is very large (just at these points). The levels of the dots are separated in energy just
    as they would be for an atom (shown by the lines in the middle of Fig. 7.11(b)). When Vsd
    exceeds the level spacing, the current is not blockaded at all, as there is always an unfilled level
    within the dot to transport an electron. This value of bias corresponds to the edges of the
    diamonds (at Vsd is ± a few mV, depending on the level). The circular dot was chosen as a
    model of a two-dimensional atom, and it shows atomic features. For example, the particularly
    stable diamonds for 2, 6, and 12 electrons are consequences of atomic “shell” structure. The
    ability of the SET to sense charge at the single electron level opens up new possibilities for
    sensors, and Fig. 7.13 shows an electromechanical sensor based on the capacitative coupling of a
    vibrating beam to the gate of an SET.

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