Related papers: Self-breaking in planar few-atom Au constrictions …
Pairs of electrodes with nanometer separation (nano-gap) are achieved through an electromigration-induced break-junction (EIBJ) technique at room temperature. Lithographically defined gold (Au) wires are formed by e-beam evaporation over…
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 investigate the formation of nanogaps in gold wires due to electromigration. We show that the breaking process will not start until a local temperature of typically 400 K is reached by Joule heating. This value is rather independent of…
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 study the structure and the electronic properties of Au nanocontacts created by controlled electromigration of thin film devices, a method frequently used to contact molecules. In contrast to electromigration testing, a current is…
We have developed a fast, yet highly reproducible method to fabricate metallic electrodes with nanometer separation using electromigration (EM). We employ four-terminal instead of two-terminal devices in combination with an analog feedback…
We have fabricated single-electron transistors from individual metal nanoparticles using a geometry that provides improved coupling between the particle and the gate electrode. This is accomplished by incorporating a nanoparticle into a gap…
Thiol-based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold surfaces are one of the fundamental building blocks of molecular electronics. The strong chemical affinity of the gold and sulfur (Au-S) enables the formation of close-packed SAMs, but it…
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…
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…
We investigate, by means of first-principles calculations, structural and transport properties of junctions made of symmetric dithiolated molecules placed between Au electrodes. As the electrodes are pulled apart, we find that it becomes…
We report an easy and broadly applicable method for the controlled self-assembly of atomically precise Au32(nBu3P)12Cl8 nanoclusters into micro-crystals. This enables the determination of emergent optoelectronic properties resulting from…
We report on the observation of non-metallic electrical conduction, resistive switching, and a negative temperature coefficient of resistance in cluster-assembled nanostructured gold films above the electrical percolation and in…
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…
Quantum confined Au nanoclusters exhibit molecule-like properties, including atomic precision and discrete energy levels. The electrical conductivity of Au nanocluster films can vary by several orders of magnitude, and is determined by the…
We have fabricated pairs of platinum electrodes with separation between 20 and 3.5 nm. Our technique combines electron beam lithography and chemical electrodeposition. We show that the measurement of the conductance between the two…
We discuss electron transport in individual nanometer-scale metallic grains at dilution refrigerator temperatures. In the weak coupling regime, the grains exhibit Coulomb blockade and discrete energy levels. Electron-electron interactions…
We present gate-dependent transport measurements of Kondo impurities in bare gold break junctions, generated with high yield using an electromigration process that is actively controlled. Thirty percent of measured devices show zero-bias…
Nano-junctions, containing atomic-scale gold contacts between strongly disordered leads, exhibit different transport properties at room temperature and at low temperature. At room temperature, the nano-junctions exhibit conductance…
The conductance of breaking metallic nanojunctions shows plateaus alternated with sudden jumps, corresponding to the stretching of stable atomic configurations and atomic rearrangements, respectively. We investigate the structure of the…