1. Room-temperature stability of Pt nanogaps formed by self-breaking.
- Author
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Prins, F., Hayashi, T., de Vos van Steenwijk, B. J. A., Gao, B., Osorio, E. A., Muraki, K., and Van der Zant, H. S. J.
- Subjects
PLATINUM electrodes ,NANOELECTROMECHANICAL systems ,FLUCTUATIONS (Physics) ,HIGH temperatures ,ELECTRODIFFUSION - Abstract
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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
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