Experimental and theoretical results of room-temperature single-electron transistor formed by the atomic force microscope nano-oxidation process

The single-walled carbon-nanotube (SWNT) was grown directly onto the top of the conventional Si atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever. This SWNT AFM cantilever was introduced into the AFM nano-oxidation process, which oxidized the titanium (Ti) metal film on the atomically flat alpha-Al2O3 substrate and formed the ultranarrow oxidized titanium (TiOx) line of 5 nm width. This TiOx line was used as the tunnel junction of the single-electron transistor (SET), and the SET fabricated by this process showed room-temperature Coulomb oscillation with periods of 1 V. It was determined by three-dimensional simulation that the tunnel-junction capacitance shows only weak dependence on the tunnel-junction width. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-2101(00)17004-6].