Electrostatically gated Si devices: Coulomb blockade and barrier capacitance

Using a device resembling a nano-charge-coupled-device and measuring the Coulomb blockade, we show how the Coulomb blockade degrades with increasing barrier conductance. To explain this behavior, we identify a new parameter, the “barrier capacitance.” This parameter can be used to elucidate information about the energy barrier under a gate with a size of a few tens of nanometers.