In-Situ Observation of the Fabrication Process of a Single Shell Carbon Fullerene Nano-Contact Using Transmission Electron Microscope–Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Abstract

A single shell carbon fullerene (SSF) was fabricated from an amorphous carbon agglomerate (a-C agglomerate) suspended between two gold electrodes. As the applied bias voltage to the a-C agglomerate was increased using a transmission electron microscope-scanning tunneling microscope (TEM-STM) system, the transformation into the SSF via a glassy carbon was observed. It was found that the SSF transformation occurred above the bias voltage of 0.6 V without a prominent loss of the number of carbon atoms. The size of the SSFs ranged from C 60 to C 620 having I h or I symmetry.

In-situ TEM Observation of Synthesizing Long Gold Atom Strand

“…The carbon atoms on the carbon-contaminated gold surface were observed to clump during observation, indicating that carbon atoms do not have a strong bond with the gold atoms. When sandwiched between two electrodes along with application of a relatively high bias voltage (0.5-1 V), agglomerates of carbon atoms change into graphitized structures, like graphene, nanotubes and fullerenes, due to Joule heating, as reported previously [6]. The carbon fullerene shown in Fig.…”

Strong gold atom strands formed by incorporation of carbon atoms

“…Furthermore, the agglomerates changed into graphitized structures, such as graphene, nanotubes, and fullerenes, when the bias voltage increased above 0.5 V, as reported previously. 25 The fullerene shown in Figs. 1 and 2 was formed by such a process.…”

Quasi-ballistic electron transport in atomic wires

“…By its high degree of symmetry C 60 is a good candidate for further study and it has been studied by several groups at low-temperatures by STM, MCBJ, and other techniques. (Böhler et al, 2007, Champagne et al, 2005, Danilov et al, 2006, Joachim et al, 1995, Kiguchi and Murakoshi, 2008, Néel et al, 2007, Park et al, 2000, Parks et al, 2007, Yoshida et al, 2007. It appears that the conductance across a single C 60 molecule is sensitive to the method of deposition and, to a lesser extend, to the type of metal electrodes used.…”