Fabrication of reproducible sub-5 nm nanogaps by a focused ion beam and observation of Fowler-Nordheim tunneling

Journal Article · Mon Sep 07 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4930821· OSTI ID:22482051

Li, Hu; Wani, Ishtiaq H.; Hayat, Aqib; Leifer, Klaus ^[1]; Jafri, S. Hassan M. ^[1]

---

1. Appled Materials Science, Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, Box 534, 75121 Uppsala (Sweden)

Creating a stable high resistance sub-5 nm nanogap in between conductive electrodes is one of the major challenges in the device fabrication of nano-objects. Gap-sizes of 20 nm and above can be fabricated reproducibly by the precise focusing of the ion beam and careful milling of the metallic lines. Here, by tuning ion dosages starting from 4.6 × 10{sup 10} ions/cm and above, reproducible nanogaps with sub-5 nm sizes are milled with focused ion beam. The resistance as a function of gap dimension shows an exponential behavior, and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling effect was observed in nanoelectrodes with sub-5 nm nanogaps. The application of Simmon's model to the milled nanogaps and the electrical analysis indicates that the minimum nanogap size approaches to 2.3 nm.

• OSTI ID: 22482051
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 107; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ELECTRODES
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
FOCUSING
ION BEAMS
IONS
MILLING
NANOSTRUCTURES
TUNNEL EFFECT