Control of Coulomb blockade oscillations in silicon single electron transistors using silicon nanocrystal floating gates

We have fabricated single-electron transistors (SETs) with Si nanocrystal floating gates, and experimentally demonstrated the control of the peak positions of Coulomb blockade oscillations. The positive voltage applied to the gate makes channel electrons tunnel into the floating dots, and the injected electrons raise the potential of quantum dots in SET, resulting in a shift of peak positions of Coulomb blockade oscillations. In addition, from the temperature dependence of device characteristics, it is confirmed that the potential fluctuations caused by random distribution of the Si nanocrystals have a slight influence on the shape of the I-ds-V-g curves at practical high temperatures. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)02802-3].