Incremental Charging of Single Small Particles

Abstract

We report the first observation of the incremental charging of single isolated small particles, which act as a common electrode in a series configuration of two small-capacitance tunnel junctions. The steplike structures in the $I-V$ characteristic, due to the quantization of the charge on the small particle, can be well described by a Monte Carlo simulation. We discuss the observation of an apparent bistability and of discrete voltage shifts of the step structure, possibly induced by the ionization of single impurity states in the oxide layer.