Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Electronic devices

Single electrons in silicon drops

Nature volume 393, pages 516–517 (1998)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 01 July 1998

This article has been updated

The conventional field-effect transistor is a narrow conducting channel connected to two low-resistance contacts, the source and the drain. The conductance of the channel can be varied efficiently by altering the voltage on a third electrode, the gate, which electrostatically attracts or repels charge carriers from the channel. In this way electrical signals can be amplified, and binary logic operations performed by turning the transistor on or off.

In the most popular FET, the MOSFET, the channel is a nearly two-dimensional sheet of electrons (or holes) confined at the surface of a lightly p- (or n-) doped silicon substrate by the positive (or negative) voltage on a nearby gate. The gate is isolated from the channel by a thin silicon-oxide layer. The oxide's properties — easy growth, robustness and excellent electrical insulation — and the ability to put both n- and p-type channels on the same substrate are the reasons behind 30 years of successful miniaturization and large-scale integration5 of MOSFET technology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A new single-electron transistor (SET).

Change history

References

  1. Millikan, R. A. Phys. Rev. 32, 349(1911).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Fulton, T. A. & Dolan, G. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 109–112 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Grabert, H. & Devoret, M. H. (eds) Single Charge Tunneling (Plenum, New York, 1992).

  4. Zhuang, L., Guo, L. & Chou, S. Y. Appl. Phys. Lett. 72, 1205–1207 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Fowler, A. Phys. Today October, 50–54 (1997).

  6. Keller, M. W., Martinis, J. M., Zimmerman, N. M. & Steinbach, A. H. Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 1804–1806 (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Guo, L., Leobandung, E. & Chou, S. Y. Science 275, 649–652 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Tiwari, S. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 1377–1379 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Shirakashi, J. & Matsumoto, K. Appl. Phys. Lett. 72, 1893–1895 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Tans, S. J., Verscheueren, A. R. M. & Decker, C. Nature 393, 49–52 (1998).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, F-91191, France

    D. Christian Glattli

Authors
  1. D. Christian Glattli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Glattli, D. Single electrons in silicon drops. Nature 393, 516–517 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/31099

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/31099

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing