Atomic Precision in Nano-Electronics

One of the greatest challenges in developing molecular-scale devices is to fabricate and monitor their formation with atomic precision. Recently, we have developed an electromigration technique that employs feedback for controllably electromigrating a nano-scale electrode with atomic precision at room temperature [1]. We will discuss our recent progress advancing this technique towards atomically precise nano-electronics. This will include in-situ transmission electron microscopy which shows evidence for highly crystalline electrode formation and the parallel fabrication of nanogaps for scaling-up to very large-scale integrated-circuits. Our results have implications on the development of a wide range of novel molecular-scale devices. Funding provided by: NSF-NSEC/NBIC DMR-0425780, NSF-NIRT Grant No. 0304531, and MRSEC award No. DMR05-20020. [1] D. R. Strachan, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 043109 (2005).