Conductance of gold nanojunctions thinned by electromigration

Hoffmann, R.; Weissenberger, D.; Hawecker, J.; Stöffler, D.

doi:10.1063/1.2965121

Cited by 55 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The advantage of an absolute resistance value exit condition compared to a relative exit condition as used previously 2,17 is that it allows a smooth increase of the resistance even for several orders of magnitude. At the start of the thinning process, a relatively large increase of the resistance is needed to start irreversible changes of the resistance as compared to reversible resistance changes due to heating.…”

Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The metallic leads are currently made out of Cu, therefore the electronic transport properties and the electromigration properties of Cu nanocontacts are of particular technological importance. Lately, the interplay of structural equilibrium and the conductance has been debated, when work-hardened wires have been compared to annealed ones and even heated and electromigrated wires 1,2 . The conductance of nanocontacts of different metals has been investigated mainly using mechanically controlled break junctions [3][4][5][6][7] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Atomic discreteness and the nature of structural equilibrium in conductance histograms of electromigrated Cu nanocontacts

2017

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We investigate the histograms of conductance values obtained during controlled electromigration thinning of Cu thin films. We focus on the question whether the most frequently observed conductance values, apparent as peaks in conductance histograms, can be attributed to the atomic structure of the wire. To this end we calculate the Fourier transform of the conductance histograms. We find all the frequencies matching the highly symmetric crystallographic directions of fcc-Cu. In addition, there are other frequencies explainable by oxidation and possibly formation of hcp-Cu. With these structures we can explain all peaks occurring in the Fourier transform within the relevant range. The results remain the same if only a third of the samples are included. By comparing our results to the ones available in the literature on work-hardened nanowires we find indications that even at low temperatures of the environment, metallic nanocontacts could show enhanced electromigration at low current densities due to defects enhancing electron scattering.

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Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic discreteness and the nature of structural equilibrium in conductance histograms of electromigrated Cu nanocontacts

2017

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“…nanoscale electrodes with nanometer separation) and nanowires is currently an important issue for fabricating novel functional nanoscale devices such as single-electron transistors (SETs) [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Fabrication method of nanostructures using electromigration (EM) is one of the most promising techniques, which have been extensively investigated [7][8][9][10]. The advantages of the method are the high yield of planar nanogaps, the monitoring in real time by observation of electrical characteristics, and the easy preparation of three-terminal devices based on nanogaps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural tuning of nanogaps using field-emission-induced electromigration with bipolar biasing

Yagi

Ito

Shirakashi

2014

2014 International Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing and Measurement on the Nanoscale (3m-Nano)

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We report a new approach for the fabrication of nanogaps using electromigration method induced by a field emission current. The method is so-called "activation" and is demonstrated here by a current source with alternately reversing polarities. The activation procedure with alternating current bias, in which the polarity of the current source alternates between positive and negative bias, is performed with planar nanogaps of Ni defined on SiO 2 /Si substrates at room temperature. During negative biasing, a Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) field emission current flows from source to drain electrode. Therefore, Ni atoms at the tip of the drain electrode are activated and then are migrated across the gap from drain to source electrode. On the other hand, in the positive case, the field emission current moves the activated atoms from source to drain electrode. These two procedures were repeated until the tunnel resistance of the nanogaps was successively decreased from 100 TΩ to 48 kΩ. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) indicated that the separation of the gap became narrower from approximately 95 nm to less than a few nm, which is due to the Ni atoms accumulated at the tip of both source and drain electrodes. These results suggest that the alternately biased activation, which is a newly proposed atom transfer technique, can successfully control the tunnel resistance of nanogaps and is suitable for the formation of ultrasmall nanostructures of interest.

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“…metal deposition over suspended structures, 3 electrochemical deposition, 8 and electromigration (EM). [9][10][11] EM, the electrical-current-induced diffusion of atoms in a thin metal film, has been widely investigated as a fabrication method of nanoscale electrodes with nanometer separation. Using the EM technique, the nanoscale electrode can be easily and simply fabricated by a current passing through a metal nanowire defined via the conventional electron-beam lithography, but the nanogap fabricated by this method exhibits high tunnel resistance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tuning of Tunnel Resistance of Nanogaps by Field-Emission-Induced Electromigration Using Current Source Mode

Takiya

Tomoda²,

Kume³

et al. 2011

J. Nanosci. Nanotech.

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A newly investigated technique for the tuning of the tunnel resistance of nanogaps using electromigration method induced by a field emission current is presented to reduce the power consumption during the process. The method is called "activation" and is demonstrated with a current source. Planar-type initial nanogaps of Ni separated by 20-80 nm were defined on SiO2/Si substrates via electron-beam lithography and the lift-off process. Then, a bias current was applied to the initial nanogaps at room temperature, using a current source. The applied current was slowly ramped up until it reached the preset value. As a result, the process time of the current-source-based activation was 16 times shorter than activation using a voltage source. Furthermore, the tunnel resistance of the nanogaps was reduced from 100 T ohms to 70 M ohms by increasing preset current I(s) from 1 nA to 3.5 microA. Regarding the average power required for current-source-based activation, it can be successfully suppressed compared with that of voltage-source-based activation. These results imply that the current source directly and precisely tunes the field emission current passing through the nanogaps, and effectively causes the migration of atoms across the nanogaps, resulting in the successful control of the tunnel resistance of the nanogaps.

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Conductance of gold nanojunctions thinned by electromigration

Cited by 55 publications

References 22 publications

Atomic discreteness and the nature of structural equilibrium in conductance histograms of electromigrated Cu nanocontacts

Atomic discreteness and the nature of structural equilibrium in conductance histograms of electromigrated Cu nanocontacts

Structural tuning of nanogaps using field-emission-induced electromigration with bipolar biasing

Tuning of Tunnel Resistance of Nanogaps by Field-Emission-Induced Electromigration Using Current Source Mode

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