Room Temperature Single-Electron Transistor Featuring Gate-Enhanced on -State Current

A single-electron transistor operating at room temperature was successfully fabricated by an improved nanodamascene process. It consists in a gated titanium nanowire interspersed by two very closely spaced tunnel junctions constituting a Coulomb island. The improvement in the process concerns the presence of an individual control gate close to the island, paving the way toward the fabrication of single-electron circuits. Moreover, a final oxidizing plasma treatment was used to tune the tunnel junction capacitances and, thus, the device operating temperature. As expected, electrical characteristics showed Coulomb blockade at room temperature, with an unexpectedly high on-state current.