4 facts filed under Cell physics: 3 read in the original source and 1 reported by a second source. Each was checked against the source’s own words, so its figures appear there, and each names where it comes from. The idea is taught in Part 2, The Physics of Flash.
Primary sources
In Likharev’s Proc. IEEE review, tunneling at low voltage and low temperature (kBT well below Ec) is exponentially suppressed, so no dc current flows; this suppression is called the Coulomb blockade, overcome at a threshold voltage.
In Likharev’s Proc. IEEE review, thermal fluctuations suppress most single-electron effects unless the electron addition energy Ea is at least 10 kBT.
Likharev’s Proc. IEEE review explains single-electron effects through the charging energy Ec = e^2/C of a small conducting island.
Secondary sources
Adding one electron to an isolated nanoparticle costs about e^2 divided by twice its capacitance.
Sources
Primary is the original paper, standard or datasheet. Secondary is a review, a vendor summary or a news report. Measured is my own test data.
Show all 1 sources, 1 primary
- PrimarySingle-Electron Devices and Their ApplicationsProceedings of the IEEE, 1999