Single-electron transistor using self-aligned sidewall spacer gates on silicon-on-insulator nanowire

A dual-gate-controlled single-electron transistor was fabricated by using self-aligned polysilicon sidewall spacer gates on a silicon-on-insulator nanowire. The quantum dot formed by the electric field effect of the dual-gate structure was miniaturized to smaller than the state-of-the-art feature size, through a combination of electron beam lithography, oxidation and polysilicon sidewall spacer gate formation processes. The device shows typical MOSFET I-V characteristics at room temperature. However, the Coulomb gap and Coulomb oscillations are clearly observed at 4 K.