STUDIES OF ELECTRON-ENERGY LEVELS IN SINGLE METAL PARTICLES

We describe the fabrication of point-contact tunnel junctions containi ng a single Al particle of diameter < 10 nm, and discuss how we have u sed such devices to measure the energy spectrum of discrete electronic states in the particle. For a full understanding of the eigenstate sp ectra, we suggest that consideration of many-electron excitations is n ecessary. We also describe the magnetic-field dependence of the energy levels, emphasizing the role of spin-orbit scattering.