Individual transport of electrons through a chemisorbed Au nanodot in Coulomb blockade electron shuttles

Abstract

The individual transport of electrons through a chemisorbed Au nanodot is observed in accordance with a nanomechanical vibration of the Au nanodot on a cantilever at 86 MHz; the experimental setup consists of a scanning tunneling microscopy probe/vacuum/chemisorbed Au nanodot/cantilever. In the tunneling current-distance characteristics, a constant current of ef [where f is an eigenfrequency of the cantilever (86 MHz)] is observed as a plateau over a distance of 0.35 nm; this plateau is five times wider than that observed in the case of physisorbed Au nanodots. Coulomb blockade electron shuttle devices with chemisorbed Au nanodots are one of the candidates for current standard devices. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.