A mechanically flexible tunneling contact operating at radio frequencies

Erbe, Artur; Blick, Robert H.; Tilke, A.; Kriele, Armin; Kotthaus, J. P.

doi:10.1063/1.122883

Cited by 75 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This and the high speed of operation enable direct integration in filter applications [7]. We have already demonstrated, that a nanomechanical tunneling contact, which operates at radio frequencies, can be built out of SOI substrates [8]. The tunneling process in turn is very sensitive to changes of the environmental conditions, thus its use in sensor applications.…”

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confidence: 99%

Nanomechanical Resonator Shuttling Single Electrons at Radio Frequencies

et al. 2001

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We observe transport of electrons through a metallic island on the tip of a nanomechanical pendulum. The resulting tunneling current shows distinct features corresponding to the discrete mechanical eigenfrequencies of the pendulum. We report on measurements covering the temperature range from 300 K down to 4.2 K. We explain the I-V curve, which unexpectedly differs from previous theoretical predictions, with model calculations based on a Master equation approach. PACS. 68.60.Bs,87.80.Mj One of the traditional experiments in the electrodynamics class is set up by two large capacitor plates and a metallized ball suspended in between the plates. Applying a constant voltage of several 100 V across the plates leads to the onset of periodic charge transfer by the ball bouncing back and forth, similar to a classical bell [1]. The number of electrons transferred by the metallized ball in each revolution naturally depends on the volume of the metal, but can be estimated to be of the order of 10 10 . At an oscillation frequency of some 10 Hz up into the audible kHz-range this gives a typical current of 1 − 10 µA.The question arising is whether such an experiment can be performed on the microscopic level in order to obtain a transfer not of a multitude but of only one electron per cycle of operation at frequencies of some 100 MHz. Indeed this can be achieved by simply scaling down the setup and applying a nanomechanical resonator. In recent experiments [2] the importance of the excitation of mechanical modes for electronic transport through single fullerenes was discussed.Here we want to present our results on shrinking the mechanical electron shuttle to submicron dimensions by integration of an electron island into a nanomechanical resonator functioning as an electromechanical transistor (EMT). The clear advantages are the increased speed of operation and the reduction of the transfer rate, allowing to count electrons one by one. A similar combination was proposed theoretically by Gorelik et al. [3] for metallic particles, which are connected to the reservoirs by elastically deformable organic molecular links. The main difference to common single electron transistor devices is the fact that only one tunneling barrier is open at a certain time. This leads to an exponential suppression of cotunneling effects and thus increases the accuracy of current transport. Detailed calculations for theoretical limits of the accuracy, which were presented elsewhere [4], show that these devices will allow measuring quantum fluctuations. In the present work we report on measurements of transport of electrons through a nanomechanical electron shuttle. The I-V characteristics which unexpectedly differs from theoretical predictions [4] can be explained by taking into account the driving voltage.An important feature of the device is the possibility to effectively modulate the tunneling rate onto and off the electron island given by the large speed of operation (f ∼ 100 MHz). This basically enables to mechanically filter and select...

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Nanomechanical Resonator Shuttling Single Electrons at Radio Frequencies

et al. 2001

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“…Since current through that system is accompanied by charging of the grain, interplay between the Coulomb forces and the mechanical degrees of freedom can lead to self oscillations of the grain and electrons can be seen as shuttled across the gap between the leads. Experimental shuttle related work has been reported on cantilevers that work as flexible tunneling contacts [7,8,9], singlemolecule transistors [10], colloidal particle systems [11], and macroscopic shuttle systems [12]. Theoretical work has included different aspects of classical shuttle systems [6,13,14,15,16], some noise and accuracy considerations [17,18], different aspects of quantum mechanical shuttle models [19,20,21,22,23,24], and shuttling of Cooper pairs in a superconducting shuttle system [25,26].…”

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Impact of van der Waals forces on the classical shuttle instability

Nord

Isacsson

2004

Phys. Rev. B

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The effects of including the van der Waals interaction in the modelling of the single electron shuttle have been investigated numerically. It is demonstrated that the relative strength of the vdW-forces and the elastic restoring forces determine the characteristics of the shuttle instability. In the case of weak elastic forces and low voltages the grain is trapped close to one lead, and this trapping can be overcome by Coulomb forces by applying a bias voltage V larger than a threshold voltage Vu. This allows for grain motion leading to an increase in current by several orders of magnitude above the transition voltage Vu. Associated with the process is also hysteresis in the I-V characteristics.

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“…Moreover, the detection method does not suffer from the common problem in electronic detection methods, where the strong actuation signals often contaminate the detected signal. Previous work on a similar design 6 did not focus on the sensor applications but rather on the ability to transfer single electrons by tunneling.…”

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Cantilever based mass sensor with hard contact readout

Dohn

Hansen

Boisen

2006

Applied Physics Letters

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We present a method for microcantilever resonant frequency detection. We measure the direct current from an intermittent contact once every vibration cycle between the conducting cantilever and a counterelectrode at a low bias voltage with respect to the cantilever, while the excitation frequency and amplitude are varied. The result is an almost “digital” detection of the resonant frequency. A relative frequency resolution Δf∕f of 1∕80000 with high signal to noise ratio in ambient conditions is demonstrated. The detection method can be applied to portable sensor systems with very high frequency nanoelectromechanical cantilevers using simple off-chip electronics.

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A mechanically flexible tunneling contact operating at radio frequencies

Cited by 75 publications

References 9 publications

Nanomechanical Resonator Shuttling Single Electrons at Radio Frequencies

Nanomechanical Resonator Shuttling Single Electrons at Radio Frequencies

Impact of van der Waals forces on the classical shuttle instability

Cantilever based mass sensor with hard contact readout

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