Applied Physics Letters · 2009 · 61 citations · 13 references
Natural SciencesMaterials SciencePhysicsCondensed Matter PhysicsNanomaterialsNanotechnologyMetal-semiconductor ContactsNanoelectronicsNanostructured Electronic MaterialsQuantum TunnelingSemiconductor NanomaterialsThermodynamics Of NanomaterialsCurrent-voltage RelationsElectromigrationNanoelectronic Device PhysicsNanofabrication Of Nanoelectronic DevicesNanoscale InterfacesRoom Temperature StabilityTemperature StabilityTunneling In Nanostructures
We present a method to make Pt nanometer-spaced electrodes that are free of metallic particles and stable at ambient conditions. The nanogaps are fabricated using feedback-controlled electromigration to form few-atom contacts. When performing this procedure at elevated temperatures (>420 K), the Pt contacts undergo self-breaking so that nanometer separated electrode pairs are formed. Once cooled down to lower temperatures, the nanogaps stabilize and can be characterized in detail. We find that current-voltage characteristics can be well fitted to a Simmons model for tunneling and gap-size fluctuations at room temperature determined from these fits stay within 0.6 Å for at least 50 h.
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Imaging Electromigration during the Formation of Break Junctions
Thiti Taychatanapat, Kirill I. Bolotin, Ferdinand Kuemmeth et al. · Nano Letters · 2007 · 128 citations