Abstract
A single localized charge can quench the luminescence of a semiconductor nanowire1, but relatively little is known about the effect of single charges on the conductance of the nanowire. In one-dimensional nanostructures embedded in a material with a low dielectric permittivity, the Coulomb interaction and excitonic binding energy are much larger than the corresponding values when embedded in a material with the same dielectric permittivity2,3. The stronger Coulomb interaction is also predicted to limit the carrier mobility in nanowires4. Here, we experimentally isolate and study the effect of individual localized electrons on carrier transport in InAs nanowire field-effect transistors, and extract the equivalent charge sensitivity. In the low carrier density regime, the electrostatic potential produced by one electron can create an insulating weak link in an otherwise conducting nanowire field-effect transistor, modulating its conductance by as much as 4,200% at 31 K. The equivalent charge sensitivity, 4 × 10−5 e Hz−1/2 at 25 K and 6 × 10−5 e Hz−1/2 at 198 K, is orders of magnitude better than conventional field-effect transistors5 and nanoelectromechanical systems6,7, and is just a factor of 20–30 away from the record sensitivity for state-of-the-art single-electron transistors operating below 4 K (ref. 8). This work demonstrates the feasibility of nanowire-based single-electron memories9 and illustrates a physical process of potential relevance for high performance chemical sensors10,11. The charge-state-detection capability we demonstrate also makes the nanowire field-effect transistor a promising host system for impurities (which may be introduced intentionally or unintentionally) with potentially long spin lifetimes12,13, because such transistors offer more sensitive spin-to-charge conversion readout than schemes based on conventional field-effect transistors13.
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Change history
06 December 2010
In the version of this Letter originally published, a label in Figure 1a was incorrect. There were also two minor text errors. These errors have now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the text.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge D.G. Austing, A.Y. Shik, S. Roddaro and K.T. Lau for helpful discussions, and D. Susac and K. Kavanagh for performing the transmission electron microscopy described in the Supplementary Information. This work was financially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations and the Ontario Centres of Excellence. J.S. acknowledges an NSERC graduate scholarship.
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J.S., I.G.S., M.B. and H.E.R. designed the experiments. J.S., I.G.S. and M.B. performed the experiments. All authors discussed the results and analysis. J.S. and S.V.N. carried out the analysis, and J.S., S.V.N. and H.E.R. wrote the paper.
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Salfi, J., Savelyev, I., Blumin, M. et al. Direct observation of single-charge-detection capability of nanowire field-effect transistors. Nature Nanotech 5, 737–741 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.180
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.180
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