Vibrations and mechanically-induced currents in nanopillars transistor

We report measurements and numerical modeling of nanopillars transistor in consisting of a multilayer SiN
x
/Si/SiN
x
structure and an electrical side gate for single-electron tunnel and Coulomb modulation at room temperature. The device has an ultrasmall quantum box of ˜ 10 x 10 x 10 nm
³
and its manufacture is fully VLSI processing compatible. Finite-element analysis shows that the maximum deformation is ∼ 3Å and the corresponding elastic energy stored is ∼ 50meV. The vibration frequency calculated is ∼ 10
¹²
Hz in consistent with interference measurement. The current induced ranging from 1pA to 0.1pA is also consistent with experimental data, thus confirming that single-electron tunnel indeed can generate mechanical vibrations.