Making contacts to nanostructures with atomic precision is an important process in the bottom-up fabrication and characterization of electronic nanodevices. Existing contacting techniques use top-down lithography and chemical etching, but lack atomic precision and introduce the possibility of contamination. Here, we report that a field-induced emission process can be used to make local contacts onto individual nanowires and nanotubes with atomic spatial precision. The gold nano-islands are deposited onto nanostructures precisely by using a scanning tunneling microscope tip, which provides a clean and controllable method to ensure both electrically conductive and mechanically reliable contacts. To demonstrate the wide applicability of the technique, nano-contacts are fabricated on silicide atomic wires, carbon nanotubes, and copper nanowires. The electrical transport measurements are performed in situ by utilizing the nanocontacts to bridge the nanostructures to the transport probes.
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5 March 2012
Research Article|
March 05 2012
Contacting nanowires and nanotubes with atomic precision for electronic transport
Shengyong Qin;
Shengyong Qin
1
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
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Sondra Hellstrom;
Sondra Hellstrom
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
, Stanford, California 94305, USA
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Zhenan Bao;
Zhenan Bao
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
, Stanford, California 94305, USA
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Boyan Boyanov;
Boyan Boyanov
3Components Research, Intel Corporation, Portland, Oregon 97124,
USA
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An-Ping Li
An-Ping Li
a)
1
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
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a)
Electronic mail: apli@ornl.gov.
Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 103103 (2012)
Article history
Received:
January 24 2012
Accepted:
February 18 2012
Citation
Shengyong Qin, Sondra Hellstrom, Zhenan Bao, Boyan Boyanov, An-Ping Li; Contacting nanowires and nanotubes with atomic precision for electronic transport. Appl. Phys. Lett. 5 March 2012; 100 (10): 103103. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3692585
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