Single electron tunneling in large scale nanojunction arrays with bisferrocene–nanoparticle hybrids

Abstract

We report on the fabrication and single electron tunneling behaviour of large scale arrays of nanogap electrodes bridged by bisferrocene–gold nanoparticle hybrids (BFc–AuNP). Coulomb staircase was observed in the low temperature current–voltage curves measured on the junctions with asymmetric tunnel barriers. On the other hand, junctions with symmetric tunneling barrier exhibited mere nonlinear current voltage characteristics without discrete staircase. The experimental results agreed well with simulations based on the orthodox theory. The junction resistance showed thermally activated conduction behaviour at higher temperature. The overall voltage and temperature dependent results show that the transport behaviour of the large arrays of single particle devices obtained by a facile optical lithography and chemical etching process corresponds with the behaviour of single particle devices fabricated by other techniques like e-beam lithography and mechanical breaking methods.