Coulomb blockade effect in a nano-sized gold chain

Single electron transistors (SETs) has been proposed as a future basis for nanoelectric components. SETs, which utilize Coulomb blockade effect arising from the electrostatic charging energy of a single electron, are one of the promising candidates for future integrated circuits due to their extremely low power consumption and high-density integration. Here, we report on the study of the formation mechanism of a nanometer-scale Au chain on a patterned SiO ₂ based wafer by controlling the reaction of raw materials to form citrate Au sol and aminosilane/dithiol treated SiO₂/Si wafer. Three gold colloidal particles (∼ 15 nm) were aligned in a chain to form a one-dimensional current path which was bridged on a 80 nm gap between source and drain metal electrode. The SET device exhibited a Coulomb blockade effect at 40 K.