21st Century Nanoscience – A Handbook

15Coulomb Blockade Plasmonic Switch

Ali Khademi, Dao Xiang, and Reuven Gordon

University of Victoria

15.1   Background

Coulomb Blockade

Plasmonics

Quantum-Corrected Model

15.2   Coulomb Blockade Plasmonic Switch

Experimental Method and Results

Numerical Calculations

15.3   Summary

References

15.1 Background

15.1.1 Coulomb Blockade

Single-Electron Transistor

The effect of Coulomb blockade, which allows for the control of single electron, is a superlative property of the single-electron transistors (SETs). The SET can switch from the insulating to the conducting state by adding only one electron to the gate electrode, while a normal transistor requires about 1,000–10,000 electrons (Khanna 2016, Wasshuber 1997).

Figure 15.1a illustrates a SET, ...