Electrode fabrication and attachment of organometallic molecules for conductivity measurements

The primary goal of this research is to understand the bonding and electronic structure within this class of compounds and the influence of a gated electric field on their conductivity. We report an approach for connecting a single molecule containing di-metal units to electrodes with nanometer gaps. We have succesfully fabricated pairs of terminal electrodes with intial gaps of $\sim $75 nm which we then close using electrodepostion and re-open with electromigration to nanometer gaps. The results of the time resolved voltage curve during the electrodepostion process show that most of electrodes have a very short closing time. We have also fabricated lateral three terminal devices for studying the influence of a gated third electrode. The present results show that a gap to gate distance of less than 50nm is acheivable. Our next step is to deposit molecules on the thin gap, and to measure the electrical conductivity when a single molecule bridges the gap and conducts current.