Pseudosymmetric bias and correct estimation of Coulomb/confinement energy for unintentional quantum dot in channel of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor

Abstract

We describe a measurement method that enables the correct estimation of the charging energy of an unintentional quantum dot (QD) in the channel of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). If the channel has a dominant QD with a large charging energy and an array of stray QDs with much weaker charging, this method eliminates the additional voltage drops due to stray QDs by regarding the stray QDs as series resistors. We apply this method to a short-channel MOSFET and find that the charging energy of the dominant QD can indeed be smaller than the size of the Coulomb diamond.