Coulomb blockade in quasimetallic silicon-on-insulator nanowires

Using highly doped silicon-on-insulator (SOI) films, we demonstrate metallic Coulomb blockade in silicon nanowires at temperatures up to almost 100 K. We propose a process that leads to island formation inside the wire due to a combination of structural roughness and segregation effects during thermal oxidation. Hence, no narrowing of the SOI wire is necessary to form tunneling contacts to the single-electron transistors.