Carbon-fiber tips for scanning probe microscopes and molecular electronics experiments

We fabricate and characterize carbon-fiber tips for their use in combined scanning tunneling and force microscopy based on piezoelectric quartz tuning fork force sensors. An electrochemical fabrication procedure to etch the tips is used to yield reproducible sub-100-nm apex. We also study electron t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rubio Bollinger, Gabino, Castellanos-Gomez, Andres, Bilan, Ştefan, Zotti, Linda Ángela, Arroyo, Carlos R., Agrait de la Puente, Mario Nicolás, Cuevas Rodríguez, Juan Carlos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/664624
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/664624
https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1556-276X-7-254
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Carbon electrodes
Carbon electronics
Carbon tip
Quartz tuning fork
Single-molecule junction
STM break junction
Física
Descripción
Sumario:We fabricate and characterize carbon-fiber tips for their use in combined scanning tunneling and force microscopy based on piezoelectric quartz tuning fork force sensors. An electrochemical fabrication procedure to etch the tips is used to yield reproducible sub-100-nm apex. We also study electron transport through single-molecule junctions formed by a single octanethiol molecule bonded by the thiol anchoring group to a gold electrode and linked to a carbon tip by the methyl group. We observe the presence of conductance plateaus during the stretching of the molecular bridge, which is the signature of the formation of a molecular junction