Massively parallel fabrication of crack-defined gold break junctions featuring sub-3 nm gaps for molecular devices
| Autor: | Dubois, Valentin, Raja, Shyamprasad N., Gehring, P., Caneva, S., van der Zant, H.S.J., Niklaus, Frank, Stemme, Göran |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Nature Communications, Vol 9, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2018) Nature Communications Nature Communications, 9(1) |
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |
| Popis: | Break junctions provide tip-shaped contact electrodes that are fundamental components of nano and molecular electronics. However, the fabrication of break junctions remains notoriously time-consuming and difficult to parallelize. Here we demonstrate true parallel fabrication of gold break junctions featuring sub-3 nm gaps on the wafer-scale, by relying on a novel self-breaking mechanism based on controlled crack formation in notched bridge structures. We achieve fabrication densities as high as 7 million junctions per cm$^{2}$, with fabrication yields of around 7% for obtaining crack-defined break junctions with sub-3 nm gaps of fixed gap width that exhibit electron tunneling. We also form molecular junctions using dithiol-terminated oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE3) to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach for electrical probing of molecules down to liquid helium temperatures. Our technology opens a whole new range of experimental opportunities for nano and molecular electronics applications, by enabling very large-scale fabrication of solid-state break junctions. includes supporting information, 7 Figures in main text, 7 Figures in supporting information, compilation of images in supporting information |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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