Single-Electron-Tunneling Effect in Nanoscale Granular Microbridges

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Abstract
The single-electron-tunneling (SET) effect in a nanoscale granular microbridge, which consists of a two-dimensional array of small intergrain tunnel junctions, was investigated. We observed the Coulomb blockade effect and the periodic electrical field effect in the microbridges. These results coincide well with results of numerical calculations based on a model of a two-dimensional SET junction array. We showed that electron conduction properties of the microbridges are quasi-zero-dimensional, because the size of the charge soliton is larger than the dimensions of the microbridges. The details of the current-voltage characteristics were considered as an aspect of the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition, which is a peculiar phase transition in a two dimensional system. The electron conduction properties are extremely affected by the existence of a fixed background charge.