Controlled Fabrication of Nanogaps in Ambient Environment for Molecular Electronics

Abstract

We have developed a controlled and highly reproducible method of making nanometer-spaced electrodes using electromigration in ambient lab conditions. This advance will make feasible single molecule measurements of macromolecules with tertiary and quaternary structures that do not survive the liquid-helium temperatures at which electromigration is typically performed. A second advance is that it yields gaps of desired tunnelling resistance, as opposed to the random formation at liquid-helium temperatures. Nanogap formation occurs through three regimes: First it evolves through a bulk-neck regime where electromigration is triggered at constant temperature, then to a few-atom regime characterized by conductance quantum plateaus and jumps, and finally to a tunnelling regime across the nanogap once the conductance falls below the conductance quantum.

3 pages

References in corpus (3)

• The Kondo effect in C${}_{60}$ single-molecule transistors
• Metal-nanoparticle single-electron transistors fabricated using electromigration
• Quantum Necking in Stressed Metallic Nanowires

Cited by in corpus (46)

• Room-temperature gating of molecular junctions using few-layer graphene nanogap electrodes
• Electromigrated nanoscale gaps for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
• Quantum phase transition in a single-molecule quantum dot
• Electrical manipulation of spin states in a single electrostatically gated transition-metal complex
• The role of Joule heating in the formation of nanogaps by electromigration
• The Kondo Effect in the Presence of Magnetic Impurities
• Electronic excitations of a single molecule contacted in a three-terminal configuration
• Temperature Control of Electromigration to form Gold Nanogap Junctions
• Nanogaps by direct lithography for high-resolution imaging and electronic characterization of nanostructures
• Feedback controlled electromigration in four-terminal nano-junctions
• Direct measurement of the Seebeck coefficient in a Kondo-correlated single-quantum-dot transistor
• Terahertz dynamics of electron-vibron coupling in single molecules with tunable electrostatic potential
• Electric-field control of interfering transport pathways in a single-molecule anthraquinone transistor
• Quantized Conductance and Switching in Percolating Nanoparticle Films
• Nanogaps with very large aspect ratios for electrical measurements
• Anisotropic magnetoresistance and anisotropic tunneling magnetoresistance due to quantum interference in ferromagnetic metal break junctions
• Electronic and optical properties of electromigrated molecular junctions
• From ballistic transport to tunneling in electromigrated ferromagnetic breakjunctions
• Asymmetry-induced resistive switching in Ag-Ag${}_2$S-Ag memristors enabling a simplified atomic-scale memory design
• Magnetoresistance of atomic-scale electromigrated nickel nanocontacts
• Feedback-controlled electromigration for the fabrication of point contacts
• Multilevel Resistance Switching and Enhanced Spin Transition Temperature in Single Molecule Spin Crossover Nanogap Devices
• Scanning probe microscopy imaging of metallic nanocontacts
• Gate Coupling to Nanoscale Electronics
• A Silicon Cluster Based Single Electron Transistor with Potential Room-Temperature Switching
• Manipulation of organic polyradicals in a single-molecule transistor
• An investigation into the feasibility of myoglobin-based single-electron transistors
• Scope of Magnetic Tunnel Junction Based Molecular Electronics and Spintronics Devices
• Ultra-short suspended single-wall carbon nanotube transistors
• Rattling motion of a single atom in a fullerene cage molecule sensed by terahertz spectroscopy
• Unusual resistance-voltage dependence of nanojunctions during electromigration in ultra-high vacuum
• Out-of-equilibrium singlet-triplet Kondo effect in a single C_60 quantum dot
• Spin excitations in an all-organic double quantum dot molecule
• Two-dimensional simulations of temperature and current-density distribution in electromigrated structures
• The role of titanium in electromigrated tunnel junctions
• Effect of quantized conductivity on the anomalous photon emission radiated from atomic-size point contacts
• Structure and local charging of electromigrated Au nanocontacts
• Atomic discreteness and the nature of structural equilibrium in conductance histograms of electromigrated Cu-nanocontacts
• Kondo effects in a C_60 single-molecule transistor
• Pre-determining the location of electromigrated gaps by nonlinear optical imaging
• Utility of NISQ devices: optimizing experimental parameters for the fabrication of Au atomic junction using gate-based quantum computers
• Role of Nearly-Degenerate Vibrational Modes in Electron Transport through a Molecular Junction
• Light Induced Negative Differential Conductance in Molecular Junctions: Role of Triplet States and Electron-Phonon Interaction
• Model-based study of a nanowire heating and dynamic axisymmetric necking by surface electromigration
• Proposal for a nanoscale variable resistor/electromechanical transistor
• Supplementary Information: Quantum phase transition in a single-molecule quantum dot