Single-Electron Effects in Metals and Nanotubes for Nanoscale Circuits

As circuits are made smaller, certain new physical phenomena will appear. When the capacitance of components becomes so small that adding a single electron to that component causes the voltage to jump significantly, then singleelectron effects will have to be included in the device models. This can have important consequences for the conductance through the device and the noise that is observed. Transistors based on single-electron effects have been made using metal tunnel junctions, silicon technology and conducting polymers. Here the status of single-electronic circuits made from metal tunnel junctions and carbon nanotubes is discussed.