Principle of a variable capacitor based on Coulomb blockade of nanometric-size clusters

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2004 EDP Sciences
, , Citation P. Seneor et al 2004 EPL 65 699 DOI 10.1209/epl/i2003-10122-3

0295-5075/65/5/699

Abstract

We show how Coulomb blockade of electrons in a dispersive set of clusters embedded in the dielectric of a capacitor can be used to design a voltage tunable variable capacitor (varactor). We calculate the variation of capacitance for typical size distribution of the clusters and as a function of the dielectric constants of the insulators. We also discuss the temperature and frequency dependence of the capacitor.

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10.1209/epl/i2003-10122-3