Temperature behavior of multiple tunnel junction devices based on disordered dot arrays

Nanometer-sized multijunction arrays are expected to exhibit a large Coulom b blockade effect. However, up to now, only highly disordered arrays can be fabricated. In this article, we evaluate the consequences of disorder on t he dispersion of the device characteristics. We show that, as observed for regular arrays, the threshold voltage V-th increases with the length of the multijunction array. At very low temperature, the V-th dispersion is small . Conversely, at higher temperature, a large dispersion in V-th is observed . We evidence the importance of the different array parameters with respect to the device characteristics. We show that the crucial parameters are the tunnel resistances and, therefore, for a two-dimensional array, the total resistance of the minimal resistance path is the most relevant parameter. ( C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(00)05701-7].