Single-electron transistor made of two crossing multiwalled carbon nanotubes and its noise properties

Abstract

A three-terminal nanotube device was fabricated from two multiwalled nanotubes by pushing one on top of the other using an atomic-force microscope. The lower nanotube, with gold contacts at both ends, acted as the central island of a single-electron transistor while the upper one functioned as a gate electrode. Coulomb blockade oscillations were observed on the nanotube at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The voltage noise of the nanotube single-electron transistor (SET) was gain dependent as in conventional SETs. The charge sensitivity at 10 Hz was 6×10 exp −4 e/√Hz.