SINGLE ELECTRON TRANSISTOR

DEVICE(SETD)
BY
KRISUM RAJ PURKAIT
 INTRODUCTION
• A single-electron transistor (SET) is a sensitive electronic
device based on the Coulomb blockade effect. In this device
the electrons flow through a tunnel junction between
source/drain to a quantum dot (conductive island). Moreover,
the electrical potential of the island can be tuned by a third
electrode, known as the gate, which is capacitively coupled to
the island. The conductive island is sandwiched between two
tunnel junctions, [1] which are modeled by a capacitor (CD & CS)
and a resistor(RD & RS ).
 HISTORY
• When David Thouless pointed out in 1977 that the size of a conductor, if made
small enough, will affect the electronic properties of the conductor, a new
subfield of condensed matter physics was started.The research that followed
during the 1980s was known as the mesoscopic physics, based on the
submicron-size systems investigated. This was the starting point of the
research related to the single-electron transistor.The first single-electron
transistor based on the Coulomb blockade was reported in 1986 by Soviet
scientists K. K. Likharev [ru] and D. V. Averin. A couple of years later, T. Fulton
and G. Dolan at Bell Labs in the US fabricated and demonstrated how such a
device works.
• In1992 MarcA.Kastner demonstrated the importance of the energy levels of
the quantum dot. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Russian physicists S. P.
Gubin, V. V. Kolesov, E. S. Soldatov, A. S. Trifonov, V. V. Khanin, G. B. Khomutov,
and S. A. Yakovenko were the first ones to ever make a molecule based SET
operational at room temperature.
 APPLICATIONS OF SETD
• The increasing relevance of the Internet of things and the healthcare
applications give more relevant impact to the electronic device power
consumption. For this purpose, ultra-low-power consumption is one of the
main research topics into the current electronics world.  In this scenario,
the SET has appeared as a suitable candidate to achieve this low power
range with high level of device integration.
• Tiny computers used in the day-to-day world, e.g. mobile phones and
home electronics; requires a significant power consumption level of the
implemented devices.
•  super-sensitive electrometers, single-electron spectroscopy, DC current
standards, temperature standards, detection of infrared radiation, voltage
state logics, charge state logics, programmable single-electron transistor
logic.
 PRINCIPLE OF WORKING
• The SET has three electrodes: source, drain, and a gate. The main
technological difference is in the channel concept. While the channel
changes from insulated to conductive with applied gate voltage in the FET,
the SET is always insulated. The source and drain are coupled through two 
tunnel junctions, separated by a metallic or semiconductor-based 
quantum nanodot (QD), also known as the "island". The electrical
potential of the QD can be tuned with the capacitively coupled gate
electrode to alter the resistance, by applying a positive voltage the QD will
change from blocking to non-blocking state and electrons will start
tunnelling to the QD.
 PRINCIPLE OF WORKING
• The current, I from source to drain follows 
Ohm's law when VSD is applied, and it equals
(VSD/R) where the main contribution of the
resistance, R comes from the tunnelling effects
when electrons move from source to QD, and from
QD to drain. VG regulates the resistance of the QD,
which regulates the current. This is the exact same
behaviour as in regular FETs. However, when moving
away from the macroscopic scale, the quantum
effects will affect the current, I.
 PRINCIPLE OF WORKING
• In the blocking state all lower energy levels are occupied at the QD
and no unoccupied level is within tunnelling range of electrons
originating from the source (green 1.). When an electron arrives at the
QD (2.) in the non-blocking state it will fill the lowest available vacant
energy level, which will raise the energy barrier of the QD, taking it
out of tunnelling distance once again. The electron will continue to
tunnel through the second tunnel junction (3.), after which it scatters
inelastically and reaches the drain electrode Fermi level (4.).
• The energy levels of the QD are evenly spaced with a separation of 
∆E. This gives rise to a self-capacitance C of the island, defined
as: C=(e2/ ∆E).
 PRINCIPLE OF WORKING
 To achieve the Coulomb blockade, three criteria need to be met: 
• The bias voltage must be lower than the elementary charge divided by the self-
capacitance of the island: Vbias<(e/C)
• The thermal energy in the source contact plus the thermal energy in the island,
i.e.  KBT must be below the charging energy:  KBT<<e2/2C  otherwise the electron
will be able to pass the QD via thermal excitation.
• The tunnelling resistance, RT should be greater than  h/e2 which is derived from
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.  ∆E*∆t=(e2/2C)(RTC)>h where  RTC  corresponds
to the tunnelling time τ and is shown as CSRS and CDRD in the schematic figure of
the internal electrical components of the SET. The time (τ) of electron tunnelling
through the barrier is assumed to be negligibly small in comparison with the other
time scales. This assumption is valid for tunnel barriers used in single-electron
devices of practical interest, where  τ≈10-15 S.
• If the resistance of all the tunnel barriers of the system is much higher than the
quantum resistance Rt=h/e2=25.853KΩ it is enough to confine the electrons to the
island, and it is safe to ignore coherent quantum processes consisting of several
simultaneous tunnelling events, i.e. co-tunnelling.
 TEMPERATURE COMPATABILITY
• Various materials have successfully been tested when creating single-
electron transistors. However, temperature is a huge factor limiting
implementation in available electronical devices. Most of the metallic-
based SETs only work at extremely low temperatures.
•  The electrostatic charging energy must be greater than KBT to prevent
thermal fluctuations affecting the Coulomb blockade. This in turn implies
that the maximum allowed island capacitance is inversely proportional to
the temperature, and needs to be below 1 aF to make the device
operational at room temperature.
• The island capacitance is a function of the QD size, and a QD diameter
smaller than 10 nm is preferable when aiming for operation at room
temperature. This in turn puts huge restraints on the manufacturability of
integrated circuits because of reproducibility issues.
 CMOS COMPATABILITY
• The level of the electrical current of the SET can be amplified enough to work
with available CMOS technology by generating a hybrid SET-FET device. [12][13]
• The EU funded project IONS4SET (#688072) [14] looks for the manufacturability
of SET-FET circuits operative at room temperature. The main goal of this project
is to design a SET-manufacturability process-flow for large-scale operations
seeking to extend the use of the hybrid Set-CMOS architectures. To assure
room temperature operation, single dots of diameters below 5 nm have to be
fabricated and located between source and drain with tunnel distances of a few
nanometers [15]. Up to now there is no reliable process-flow to manufacture a
hybrid SET-FET circuit operative at room temperature. In this context, this EU
project explores a more feasible way to manufacture the SET-FET circuit by
using pillar dimensions of approximately 10 nm
 QUANTUM DOTS
• Quantum dots (QDs) are tiny semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size,
having optical and electronic properties that differ from larger particles due to 
quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanotechnology.  Quantum
dots are sometimes referred to as artificial atoms, emphasizing their
singularity, having bound, discrete electronic states, like naturally occurring 
atoms or molecules.   
•  When the quantum dots are illuminated by UV light, an electron in the
quantum dot can be excited to a state of higher energy. In the case of a 
semiconducting quantum dot, this process corresponds to the transition of an
electron from the valence band to the conductance band. The excited electron
can drop back into the valence band releasing its energy by the emission of
light. This light emission (photoluminescence) is illustrated in the figure on the
right. The color of that light depends on the energy difference between the 
conductance band and the valence ban
 QUANTUM DOTS
• BANDGAP ENERY:- ab*= ɛr(m/μ) ab , where  ab is the Bohr
radius=0.053 nm, m is the mass, μ is the reduced mass, and εr is the size-
dependent dielectric constant.
• CONFINEMENT ENERGY:- Econ =[h2/(8a2)] *(me-1 + mh-1)
• EXCITATION ENERGY:- Eexcit = -μRy/ɛrme=-Ry* , where μ is the reduced
mass, a is the radius of the quantum dot, me is the free electron
mass, mh is the hole mass, and εr is the size-dependent dielectric constant
 COULOMB BLOCKADE
• In mesoscopic physics, a Coulomb blockade (CB), named
after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb's electrical force, is the
decrease in electrical conductance at small bias voltages of a
small electronic device comprising at least one low-
capacitance tunnel junction.[1] Because of the CB, the
conductance of a device may not be constant at low bias
voltages, but disappear for biases under a certain threshold,
i.e. no current flows.
• Coulomb blockade can be observed by making a device very
small, like a quantum dot. When the device is small enough, 
electrons inside the device will create a strong 
Coulomb repulsion preventing other electrons to flow.
 COULOMB BLOCKADE
• Even though the Coulomb blockade can be used to demonstrate
the quantization of the electric charge, it remains a classical
 effect and its main description does not require 
quantum mechanics. However, when few electrons are involved
and an external static magnetic field is applied, Coulomb
blockade provides the ground for a spin blockade (like Pauli spin
blockade) and valley blockade,[3] which include quantum
mechanical effects due to spin and orbital interactions
 respectively between the electrons.
 COULOMB BLOCKADE
 To achieve the Coulomb blockade, three criteria need to be met: 
• The bias voltage must be lower than the elementary charge divided by the
self-capacitance of the island: Vbias<(e/C)
• The thermal energy in the source contact plus the thermal energy in the
island, i.e.  KBT must be below the charging energy:  KBT<<e2/2C  otherwise
the electron will be able to pass the QD via thermal excitation.
• The tunnelling resistance, RT should be greater than  h/e2 which is derived
from Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.  ∆E*∆t=(e2/2C)(RTC)>h where  RTC
 corresponds to the tunnelling time τ and is shown as CSRS and CDRD in the
schematic figure of the internal electrical components of the SET. The time
(τ) of electron tunnelling through the barrier is assumed to be negligibly
small in comparison with the other time scales. This assumption is valid for
tunnel barriers used in single-electron devices of practical interest, where 
τ≈10-15 S.
• If the resistance of all the tunnel barriers of the system is much higher than
the quantum resistance Rt=h/e2=25.853KΩ it is enough to confine the
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