Coulomb blockade in anodised titanium nanostructures

We investigate the electrical transport properties of narrow titanium (Ti) wires which are thinned by anodic oxidation. At temperatures below 1 K the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of the resulting Ti/TiOx nanostructure s exhibit a zero current state due to the occurrence of Coulomb blockade. A n indium gate electrode is placed on top of the anodised region, and the mo dulation of the conductance as a function of the gate voltage is investigat ed. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.