Electron confinement in a metal nanodot monolayer embedded in silicon dioxide produced using ferritin protein

A metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure with a buried monolayer of ferritin cores in the SiO2 layer was fabricated and the electron confinement in the cores was confirmed. A monolayer of ferritin molecule was adsorbed on the thermal silicon oxide layer. After the protein of the monolayer was eliminated, the ferrihydrite cores were buried in the silicon dioxide layer. We reduced the cores to conductive iron metal nanodots by low-temperature annealing. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron-energy-loss spectroscopy measurements confirmed the reduction of the cores. The MOS capacitance with the iron nanodots showed hysteresis in the capacitance-voltage measurement, indicating the charging and discharging behavior in iron nanodots.