Abstract
Single-electron transistors (SETs) have been fabricated with n-type monocrystalline silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and germanium nanowires (GeNWs) separately. Comparisons of the single-electron transport characteristics between them have been studied at low temperatures. Coulomb oscillations of both devices were found with almost equidistant peak spacing and largely varied peak heights, while charge-stability diagrams showed almost identical diamond-shaped dimensions. Noticeably, for the GeNW-SET, the spacing between neighboring Coulomb-oscillation peaks alternately changed in some gate-voltage (Vg) regions, indicating the even–odd effect. On the contrary, the SiNW-SET did not show such effect in the entire measured Vg region. The comparison indicates that the quantum effect is much more prominent in the GeNW-SET than in the SiNW-SET.