Related papers: Mechanical annealing of metallic electrodes at the…
The formation and rupture of atomic-sized contacts is modelled by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Such nano-contacts are realized in scanning tunnelling microscope and mechanically controlled break junction experiments. These…
Electrical conductance through various nanocontacts between gold electrodes is studied by using the density functional theory, scalar-relativistic pseudopotentials, generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation energy and…
We have studied experimentally the phenomena of jump-to-contact (JC) and jump-out-of-contact (JOC) in gold electrodes. JC can be observed at the first contact when the two metals approach each other while JOC occurs in the last contact…
Electrochemical methods have recently become an interesting tool for fabricating and characterizing nanostructures at room temperature. Simplicity, low cost and reversibility are some of the advantages of this technique that allows to work…
The continuing miniaturization of microelectronics raises the prospect of nanometre-scale devices with mechanical and electrical properties that are qualitatively different from those at larger dimensions. The investigation of these…
A simple and highly reproducible technique is demonstrated for the fabrication of metallic electrodes with nanometer separation. Commercially available bare gold colloidal nanoparticles are first trapped between prefabricated…
We report a simple and reproducible method to fabricate two metallic electrodes made of different metals with a nanometer-sized gap. These electrodes are fabricated by defining a pair of gold electrodes lithographically and…
This paper reports the experimental, analytical, and numerical study of resistive-nanoindentation tests performed on gold samples (bulk and thin film). First, the relevant contributions to electrical contact resistance are discussed and…
Applying ac voltages, we trapped gold nanoparticles between microfabricated electrodes under well-defined conditions. We demonstrate that the nanoparticles can be controllably fused together to form homogeneous gold nanowires with…
We address the quality of electrical contact between carbon nanotubes and metallic electrodes by performing first-principles calculations for the electron transmission through ideal 2- and 3-terminal junctions, thus revealing the physical…
We report on transient adhesion and conductance phenomena associated with tip wetting in mechanical contacts produced by the indentation of a clean W(111) tip into a Au(111) surface. A combination of atomic force microscopy and scanning…
This study introduces a straightforward electrode design featuring sharp edges with a curvature of a few hundred nanometers in radius, with which both ion accumulation and nanoparticle deposition can be observed under an alternating…
We have developed a technology to reproducibly make gaps with distance control on the single atom scale. The gold contacts are flat on the nanometre scale and are fabricated on an oxidized aluminium film that serves as a gate. We show that…
A new form of gold nanobridges has been recently observed in ultrahigh-vacuum experiments, where the gold atoms rearrange to build helical nanotubes, akin in some respects to carbon nanotubes. The good reproducibility of these wires and…
Scanning tunnelling microscopy and break-junction experiments realize metallic and molecular nanocontacts that act as ideal one-dimensional channels between macroscopic electrodes. Emergent nanoscale phenomena typical of these systems…
Cluster-assembled metallic films show interesting electrical properties, both in the near-to-percolation regime, when deposited clusters do not form a complete layer yet, and when the film thickness is well above the electrical percolation…
We have examined theoretically the spontaneous thinning process of tip-suspended nanowires, and subsequently studied the structure and stability of the monatomic gold wires recently observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The…
Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy is used here to study dynamic bonding of gold atoms on surfaces under low coordination conditions. In the experiments, using an atomically-sharp gold tip, a gold adatom is deposited onto a gold…
Structural transformations, electronic spectra and ballistic transport in pulled gold nanowires are investigated with ab initio simulations, and correlated with recent measurements. Strain-induced yield of an initial double-strand wire…
While nanoalloys are of paramount scientific and practical interests, the main processes leading to their formation are still poorly understood. Key structural features in the alloy systems, including crystal phase, chemical ordering, and…