Fabrication of nanometer-spaced electrodes using gold nanoparticles
- 9 December 2002
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 81 (24) , 4613-4615
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1528285
Abstract
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 large-separation electrodes to form a low-resistance bridge by an ac electric field. A large dc voltage is then applied to break the bridge via electromigration at room temperature, which consistently produces gaps in the sub-10 nm range. The technique is readily applied to prefabricated electrodes with separation up to 1 μm, which can be defined using optical lithography. The simple fabrication scheme will facilitate electronic transport studies of individual nanostructures made by chemical synthesis. As an example, measurement of a thiol-coated gold nanoparticle showing a clear Coulomb staircase is presented.Keywords
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