Mesoscopic devices

This article is a review of an area of solid state physics which has come to be known as mesoscopic devices. These structures have an active region ranging in size from 100 AA to 1 mu m and their electronic properties are markedly different to those of bulk materials. Mesoscopic devices take advantage of the unique properties of these structures and a number of new types of device have been proposed and demonstrated. This review covers the basic fabrication techniques and the underlying physics of mesoscopic structures and describes how they might be exploited in future devices. This review was received in its present form in August 1994.