Nanomechanical electron shuttle consisting of a gold nanoparticle embedded within the gap between two gold electrodes

Abstract

Nanomechanical shuttles transferring small groups of electrons or even individual electrons from one electrode to another offer a novel approach to the problem of controlled charge transport. Here, we report the fabrication of shuttle-junctions consisting of a 20 nm diameter gold nanoparticle embedded within the gap between two gold electrodes. The nanoparticle is attached to the electrodes through a monolayer of "flexible" organic molecules which play the role of "springs" so that when a sufficient voltage bias is applied, the nanoparticle starts to oscillate transferring electrons from one electrode to the other. Currentvoltage characteristics for the fabricated devices have been measured and compared with the results of our computer simulations.In 1998, a group of theoreticians 1 proposed a novel mechanism of charge transport in nanostructures based on mechanical shuttling of electrons. The basic element (see Fig. 1), which is called a shuttle-junction, consists of a metallic nanoparticle connected by flexible, "elastic" molecules to two nanoelectrodes. For low applied voltages where the nanoparticle is stationary the device is similar to a single-electron transistor (SET). 2 The vibrational process

Single-electron current sources: Toward a refined definition of the ampere

“…Another realization of the nanoelectronic shuttling device was reported by Moskalenko et al (2009aMoskalenko et al ( , 2009b. It had the configuration of a single-electron transistor, whose island was a gold nanoparticle placed in between the Au source and drain electrodes by means of an atomic force microscope.…”

Inter-particle charge transfer in TiO2-phytate films: Generator–collector gold–gold junction transients

“…This implies an approximate self-exchange exchange of electrons between TiO 2 nanoparticles of k SE Â c nanoparticle / 6 = 5 Â 10 6 s À1 for each inter-particle gap (assuming six close neighbors for each particle). The self-exchange frequency is likely to be linked to ''Brownian rattling'' due to fluctuations in the surrounding water phase causing (''nano-electromechanical'') transfer of electrons to be coupled to relative inter-particle movements [46].…”

Single-electron tunneling with slow insulators

“…The last two effects may exist in the ferroelectric SET, however non of them have been found before. These results are important: SET device with hysteresis may be promising for the "shuttle" of charge [24][25][26] free from moving nanomechanical degrees of freedom: cycling the gate voltage along the hysteresis loop might allow transfer of several charge quanta through the SET. Other promising applications include transistor 4 and memory-cell.…”