Coulomb blockade under conditions of inelastic tunneling

It is found that single-electron current oscillations in the drain-gate cha racteristics of a single-electron transistor fabricated by the step-edge cu toff process, as compared to a conventional single-electron transistor, are damped several times slower and do not change their phase by pi as the sou rce-drain voltage increases. This is explained by the strong nonlinearity o f the current-voltage characteristics of tunnel junctions, which is caused by the inelastic character of tunneling. (C) 2000 MAIK "Nauka / Interperiod ica".