Room temperature single electron transistor based on a size-selected aluminium cluster

Single electron transistors (SET) are powerful devices to study the properties of nanoscale objects. However, the capabilities to place a nano-object between electrical contacts under pristine conditions are lacking. Here, we developed a versatile two point contacting approach that tackles this challenge, which is demonstrated by constructing in-situ a prototypical SET device consisting of single aluminium cluster of 66 +/- 5 atoms, deposited directly in the gold nanogap using an innovative cluster beam deposition technique. The gate driven conductance measurements demonstrate Coulomb blockade oscillations at room temperature correlating with an extracted charging energy of 0.14 eV, which is five times larger than kBT at 300 K. Our work provides a model SET device platform to probe quantum features of nano-objects with high precision.