Single-electron transistors made by chemical patterning of silicon dioxide substrates and selective deposition of gold nanoparticles

We describe a method to pattern SiO2 surfaces with colloidal gold nanoparticles by e-beam lithography and selective nanoparticle deposition. The simple technique allows us to deposit nanoparticles in continuous straight lines, just one nanoparticle wide and many nanoparticles long. We contact the prepositioned nanoparticles with metal leads to form single electron transistors. The Coulomb blockade pattern surprisingly does not show the parasitic offset charges at low temperatures, indicating relatively little surface contamination. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.