The fabrication of single-electron transistors using dielectrophoretic trapping of individual gold nanoparticles

We demonstrate a simple technique for the fabrication of gold nanoparticle single-electron transistors (SET). The technique is based on nanogap fabrication using the nanoparticle break junction technique and dielectrophoretic assembly of thiolated gold nanoparticles into the nanogap. Electron transport measurements at 4.2 K show a clear and periodic Coulomb diamond structure, characteristic of an SET from a single quantum dot. We performed simulations using a commercially available SET Monte Carlo simulator to further verify that the observed transport behavior stems from a single dot and obtained different parameters for the SET.