Room temperature electrometry with SUB-10 electron charge resolution

Abstract

We have fabricated and demonstrated a micromachined electrometer with a charge resolution of 6 e/vHz, operating at room temperature and ambient pressure. We thus show that high-resolution electrometry is realizable at room temperature and competitive with alternative low temperature (<10 K) solutions. The device presented in this paper functions as a modulated variable capacitor, wherein a dc charge to be measured is modulated and converted to an ac voltage output. By reviewing a selection of different devices based on this concept, we show that single-electron charge resolution at room temperature and ambient pressure is achievable with the aid of practical design considerations.