Quantum transport in nanostructured silicon MOSFETs

Since the invention in 1960 of the silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) this prominent microelectronic device also plays a major role in the study of quantum transport properties if the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at low temperature. As a result of the nature of the Si/SiO2 system of the MOSFET, transport in the 2DEG is either in the diffusive regime (high electron densities) or in the strongly localized regime (close to threshold). When the gate of a MOSFET is reduced to nanometer-scale dimensions, new effects may show up in the transport as a result of the lateral size of the electron system falling below a certain (quantum mechanical) length scale. In this paper several recently observed quantum transport phenomena in nanostructured MOSFETs are discussed.