Transition Voltage Spectroscopy and the Nature of Vacuum Tunneling

TL;DR

This paper extends Transition Voltage Spectroscopy (TVS) to vacuum junctions, providing a reference for molecular junction studies and offering a simple test for vacuum tunneling models.

Contribution

It applies TVS to Au-vacuum-Au junctions, establishing a reference and validating its use as a test for tunneling models.

Findings

V_t(d) dependence characterized for vacuum junctions

TVS effectively tests vacuum tunneling models

Provides benchmark data for molecular junction analysis

Abstract

Transition Voltage Spectroscopy (TVS) has been proposed as a tool to analyze charge transport through molecular junctions. We extend TVS to Au-vacuum-Au junctions and study the distance dependence of the transition voltage V_t(d) for clean electrodes in cryogenic vacuum. On the one hand, this allows us to provide an important reference for V_t(d)-measurements on molecular junctions. On the other hand, we show that TVS forms a simple and powerful test for vacuum tunneling models.