Single electron transistors: modeling and fabrication

Traditional conduction models for metal island films on insulating substrates are based on electrostatically activated tunneling, but underestimate actual conductances by orders of magnitude. A modified model has made significant headway with this problem, as demonstrated by simulations. The simplest discontinuous "film" is the single island coulomb block, which forms the basis of the single-electron transistor (SET). Room temperature SETs employ chains of islands, i.e. 1-D discontinuous films. The conventional numerical SET model is extended by application of the discontinuous thin film (DTF) work. Practical applications of discontinuous films are impeded by the difficulty of fabricating reproducible, stable structures, particularly for low TCR films which are the most susceptible to drift. Similar difficulties are experienced with SET islands, and a technique to manufacture stable and reproducible DTFs and SETs is described.