Vibrations and mechanically-induced currents in nanopillars transistor

We report measurements and numerical modeling of nanopillars transistor in consisting of a multilayer SiN_x/Si/SiN_x structure and an electrical side gate for single-electron tunnel and Coulomb modulation at room temperature. The device has an ultrasmall quantum box of ~ 10 times 10 times 10 nm³ and its manufacture is fully VLSI processing compatible. Finite-element analysis shows that the maximum deformation is ~ 3 Aring and the corresponding elastic energy stored is ~ 50 meV. The vibration frequency calculated is ~ 10¹² Hz in consistent with interference measurement. The current induced ranging from 1 pA to 0.1 pA is also consistent with experimental data, thus confirming that single-electron tunnel indeed can generate mechanical vibrations.