A METAL OXIDE TUNNELING TRANSISTOR

We have fabricated a nanometer-scale transistor that operates by using a gate field to modulate the transmission of electrons through a late ral metal/oxide tunnel barrier. Our initial devices have a 30-nm-wide lateral Nb/NbOx tunnel junction on top of a planar Al2O3/Al buried gat e. We observe effective modulation of the source-drain current with ga te bias at room temperature with negligible gate leakage current. We i dentify the materials issues that currently limit the device performan ce, and we offer direction for future device improvements. [S0003-6951 (98)00723-2].