Physics and Applications of Random Telegraph Signals in Field-Effect Transistors (February 25, 2004)

Random Telegraph Signals (RTS) in transport current through a conduction channel of a Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) are known to be related to charging and discharging of a single impurity due to electron tunneling between the impurity and the channel. The phenomenon provides a unique example where a single electron tunneling can be explicitly monitored. Recent experiments have shown that the RTS in MOSFETs turns out to be strongly dependent on applied magnetic fields, which offers a possibility to manipulate by a spin of a single electron. The latter possibility is of a primary importance for newly developing areas of research such as spintronics and quantum information processing (AKA quantum computing).