Acknowledgments

I first of all wish to thank the two Professors who guided me through my doctor studies. One is Prof. Dr. Kunihiro Asada from Tokyo University who suggested to me the fascinating field of single-electron tunneling and the many unsolved and open questions it includes. He guided me through the first year of my single-electron tunneling studies and formulation of simulation algorithms. The other is Prof. Dr. Siegfried Selberherr from Vienna University of Technology, who from the start gave his full support for my foreign studies in Japan and who provided for the last two years the computational resources and the scientific basis that made this work possible. Both shared their extremely valuable thoughts and opinions with me, of which I am very grateful.

Highly appreciated is the proofreading of this thesis by Dr. Hans Kosina who also put many of my theories and derivations back on a solid more rigid foundation. Three Physics Majors, Dipl.-Ing. Goran Kaiblinger, Dipl.-Ing. Martin Knaipp and Dr. Markus Schoisswohl could teach an Electronic Engineering Major a great deal about quantum mechanics. Their discussion provided the so important possibility to test and hone my ideas and thoughts.

Special thanks go to my friend and colleague Dipl.-Ing. Peter Fleischmann with whom I had many hot debates which deepened my understanding and who was one of the first to test my simulator giving me valuable feedback. He, in the function as system administrator, dealt with and solved many of my daily problems concerning computers, networks, and operating systems. Equal appreciation goes to the other system administrators who at one time or another kept the systems running and me happy and productive. A big thank you goes to all colleagues and users of my single-electron device and circuit simulator around the world who tested it and who reported their findings back to me.

I am especially indebted to my parents who provided the financial and moral basis for my studies. A lot of my fathers decade long experience and knowledge went into the layout of this thesis. Finally I want to express my special thanks to Marie who had to live through the many highs and lows this research brought. Here English proficiency resolved many grammatical and idiomatic questions of mine.