Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provides a field effect transistor with extremely low leakage current. It is another object of the invention to provide a semiconductor memory device having an excellent information holding characteristic. It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for manufacturing in a simple manner a novel field effect transistor or semiconductor memory device with extremely low leakage current. According to a typical basic configuration of the present invention, a thin insulating film is inserted in a vertically disposed Schottky junction to form source and drain electrodes and a tunnel of the insulating film in the junction is controlled by a gate electrode. The gate electrode is disposed on each of both sides of a vertical channel, permitting a field effect to be exerted effectively on the junction, whereby a junction leakage in an OFF state can be made extremely low.