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........ published in NEWSLETTER # 48

SINGLE CHARGE TUNNELING
Coulomb blockade phenomena in nanostructures
by Professor H. Grabert, University, Essen (Germany) and Dr. M.H. Devoret, SPEC, Saclay (France)

The field of single charge tunneling (SCT) deals with phenomena where the tunneling of a microscopic charge, usually carried by an electron or Cooper pair, leads to a change of the macroscopic state of the system. In appropriately designed nanoscale devices, the microscopic tunneling transitions of a charge may be controlled by means of macroscopic applied voltages using the main SCT effect, the so-called Coulomb blockade. This suggests several applications of SCT ranging from devices with metrological accuracy to digital electronics in its ultimate state where a single bit in an information flow might possibly be represented by a single electron.

This volume (NATO ASI SERIES B294) presents a series of tutorial articles covering different aspects of SCT and Coulomb blockade phenomena in nanostructures. Leading international experts discuss the quantum dynamics of ultrasmall junction circuits, with guidelines for computing the tunneling rate of electrons and Cooper pairs, and present the theoretical foundation for manipulating electrons one-by-one. Superconducting junction systems as well as semiconductor nanostructures are studied, including the interplay between Coulomb effects, quantum Hall effect and resonant tunneling effect in quantum dots. Further chapters deal with the process of co-tunneling, symmetry properties of systems containing a large number of junctions, and possible applications of SCT phenomena in metrology and electronics. While covering recent results, this pioneering volume also serves as an introduction for those entering this new research area of low temperature physics.
Reference books: B251, B259, B277, B294, E184, E235, E236, E239, E240, E243, E247

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