Carrier conduction in a Si-nanocrystal-based single-electron transistor-II. Effect of drain bias

✍ Scribed by Y. Fu; M. Willander; A. Dutta; S. Oda

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 264 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-6036
• DOI: 10.1006/spmi.2000.0910

✦ Synopsis

We have successfully fabricated a single-electron transistor based on undoped Si nanocrystals having radii of approximately 3-5 nm. The energy band structure of the Si dot consists of a set of discrete sublevels and a quasi-continuous band. By self-consistently solving the 3D Schrödinger and Poisson equations we have shown that the undoped Si dots between the source and drain are not occupied at zero gate bias. The carrier transport properties observed experimentally at zero gate bias have been well attributed to carrier tunneling through a multiple-step potential barrier between the source and drain junctions. Each step in the potential barrier corresponds to the bottom of the quasi-continuous band in one Si nanocrystal.