Trapping and electrical characterization of single core/shell iron-based nanoparticles in self-aligned nanogaps
J. Labra Muñoz (Universidad de Chile, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QN/van der Zant Lab)
Zorica Konstantinović (University of Belgrade)
Lluis Balcells (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Alberto Pomar (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
H.S.J. van der Zant (TU Delft - QN/van der Zant Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
Diana Dulić (Universidad de Chile)
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Abstract
We report on the fabrication and measurements of platinum-self-aligned nanogap devices containing cubed iron (core)/iron oxide (shell) nanoparticles (NPs) with two average different sizes (13 and 17 nm). The nanoparticles are deposited by means of a cluster gun technique. Their trapping across the nanogap is demonstrated by comparing the current vs voltage characteristics (I-Vs) before and after the deposition. At low temperature, the I-Vs can be well fitted to the Korotkov and Nazarov Coulomb blockade model, which captures the coexistence of single-electron tunneling and tunnel barrier suppression upon a bias voltage increase. The measurements thus show that Coulomb-blockaded devices can be made with a nanoparticle cluster source, which extends the existing possibilities to fabricate such devices to those in which it is very challenging to reduce the usual NP agglomeration given by a solution method.