In-Situ Observation of the Fabrication Process of a Single Shell Carbon Fullerene Nano-Contact Using Transmission Electron Microscope–Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Abstract

A single shell carbon fullerene (SSF) was fabricated from an amorphous carbon agglomerate (a-C agglomerate) suspended between two gold electrodes. As the applied bias voltage to the a-C agglomerate was increased using a transmission electron microscope–scanning tunneling microscope (TEM–STM) system, the transformation into the SSF via a glassy carbon was observed. It was found that the SSF transformation occurred above the bias voltage of 0.6 V without a prominent loss of the number of carbon atoms. The size of the SSFs ranged from C60 to C620 having Ih or I symmetry.