Variable gap antennas and single molecule conductance

Mechanically controllable break junctions (MCBJ) are used to produce stable in- plane tunneling with variable gap width on the angstrom scale. By pre-shaping of the constriction in the electrode with e-beam lithography or Helium-Ion beam milling a bow-tie antenna can be created. The gap width of so produced optical gap antennas can then be varied.

Similar to standard MCBJs these structures can also be loaded with molecules to measure single molecule electronics combined with optical spectroscopy by utilize the enhanced optical field of the antennas.

Literatur

Braun, K., Laible, F., Hauler, O., et al. (2018). „Active optical antennas driven by inelastic electron tunneling“. Nanophotonics (2018), 7(9): 1503-1516.

Wang X, Braun K, Zhang D, et al. „Enhancement of radiative plasmon decay by hot electron tunneling“ ACS Nano (2015); 9: 8176–83.

Braun K, Wang X, Kern AM, et al. „Superluminescence from an optically pumped molecular tunneling junction by injection of plasmon induced hot electrons” Beilstein J Nanotechnol (2015); 6: 1100–6.