THE SINGLE-ELECTRON TRANSISTOR

The discovery of periodic conductance oscillations as a function of charge density in very small transistors has led to a new understanding of the behavior of electrons in such small structures. It has been demonstrated that, whereas a conventional transistor turns on only once as electrons are added to it, submicronsize transistors, isolated from their leads by tunnel junctions, turn on and off again every time an electron is added. This unusual behavior is primarily the result of the quantization of charge and the Coulomb interaction between electrons on the small transistor. However, recent experiments demonstrate that the quantization of energy is important as well.