Coherent Single Charge Transport in Molecular-Scale Silicon Nanowire Transistors

TL;DR

This study demonstrates coherent single charge transport in molecule-scale silicon nanowires, revealing quantum effects and spin configurations, advancing understanding of nanoscale electronic devices at low temperatures.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of coherent charge transport and spin configurations in silicon nanowires at the molecular scale, highlighting quantum effects in these structures.

Findings

Coulomb blockade oscillations observed in nanowires up to 400 nm

Coherent charge transport through discrete quantum levels

Ground state spin follows Lieb-Mattis theorem

Abstract

We report low-temperature electrical transport studies of molecule-scale silicon nanowires. Individual nanowires exhibit well-defined Coulomb blockade oscillations characteristic of charge addition to a single nanostructure with length scales up to at least 400 nm. Further studies demonstrate coherent charge transport through discrete single particle quantum levels extending the whole device, and show that the ground state spin configuration follows the Lieb-Mattis theorem. In addition, depletion of the nanowires suggests that phase coherent single-dot characteristics are accessible in a regime where correlations are strong.