Room-temperature gating of molecular junctions using few-layer graphene nanogap electrodes

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to create stable, room-temperature molecular junctions using few-layer graphene nanogaps, enabling gate control of electronic properties in practical conditions.

Contribution

The authors introduce a fabrication technique for room-temperature, gateable molecular junctions with nanogaps formed by feedback-controlled electroburning.

Findings

Molecular junctions exhibit gate-tunable IV characteristics at room temperature.

Nanogaps are approximately 1-2 nm in size, suitable for molecular electronics.

The method provides a stable platform for molecular device integration.

Abstract

We report on a method to fabricate and measure gateable molecular junctions which are stable at room temperature. The devices are made by depositing molecules inside a few-layer graphene nanogap, formed by feedback controlled electroburning. The gaps have separations on the order of 1-2 nm as estimated from a Simmons model for tunneling. The molecular junctions display gateable IV-characteristics at room temperature.