Single-electron tunneling in metal droplets in the high conductance regime

We present single-electron tunneling results for well-characterized multidroplet systems in the high conductance regime. The work was conducted with tunnel systems comprising ultra-small Ni droplets. The conductance associated with individual droplets was estimated to reach 18--19G{sub K} in systems exhibiting especially high conductance. The P(E) (phase correlation) theory has been successfully applied to the conductance characteristics of these systems. Our results suggest that in the high conductance regime the droplets can be modeled as single, resistively isolated tunnel junctions. Based on an analysis of the single-electron properties of these systems, the average number of droplets N…