Nanogaps by direct lithography for high-resolution imaging and electronic characterization of nanostructures

摘要

We report a method for fabricating nanogaps directly with electron beamlithography (EBL). The primary resolution-limit of EBL, electronback-scattering, is reduced dramatically by using a thin-film as a substrate.We show that this resolution enhancement allows one to fabricate metalelectrodes with separation from arbitrarily large to under one nanometer.Furthermore, because these nanogaps are on a thin film, they can be imaged withhigh-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Using these nanogapswe measured the charge transport through several coupled PbSe nanocrystals andcorrelated the data with detailed structural information obtained by performingHRTEM on the same device.