Realization of an in-plane-gate single-electron transistor

By etching narrow trenches in an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure and defining a channel and six in-plane gates in the two-dimensional electron gas, a single-electron transistor is produced in a simple way. As expected from charging effects, the conductivity of the transistor oscillates with the voltage on each gate. However, in contrast to metallic devices or heterostructure devices with metallic top gates, the voltage dependent depletion of the gates themselves leads to changes in the period of the oscillations.