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Register a new userFeedback-controlled electromigration for the fabrication of point contacts
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Lithographically fabricated point contacts serve as important examples of mesoscopic conductors, as electrodes for molecular electronics, and as ultra-sensitive transducers for mechanical motion. We have developed a reproducible technique for fabricating metallic point contacts though electromigration. We employ fast analog feedback in a four-wire configuration in combination with slower computer controlled feedback to avoid catastrophic instability. This hybrid system allows electromigration to proceed while dissipating approximately constant power in the wire. We are able to control the final resistance of the point contact precisely below 5 kOmega and to within a factor of three when the target resistance approaches 12 kOmega where only a single conducting channel remains.
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We have developed a controlled and highly reproducible method of making nanometer-spaced electrodes using electromigration in ambient lab conditions. This advance will make feasible single molecule measurements of macromolecules with tertiary and quaternary structures that do not survive the liquid-helium temperatures at which electromigration is typically performed. A second advance is that it yields gaps of desired tunnelling resistance, as opposed to the random formation at liquid-helium temperatures. Nanogap formation occurs through three regimes: First it evolves through a bulk-neck regime where electromigration is triggered at constant temperature, then to a few-atom regime characterized by conductance quantum plateaus and jumps, and finally to a tunnelling regime across the nanogap once the conductance falls below the conductance quantum.
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the conductance and stability of Mg atomic-sized contacts. Using Mechanically Controllable Break Junctions (MCBJ), we have observed that the room temperature conductance histograms exhibit a series of peaks, which suggests the existence of a shell effect. Its periodicity, however, cannot be simply explained in terms of either an atomic or electronic shell effect. We have also found that at room temperature, contacts of the diameter of a single atom are absent. A possible interpretation could be the occurrence of a metal-to-insulator transition as the contact radius is reduced, in analogy with what it is known in the context of Mg clusters. However, our first principle calculations show that while an infinite linear chain can be insulating, Mg wires with larger atomic coordinations, as in realistic atomic contacts, are alwaysmetallic. Finally, at liquid helium temperature our measurements show that the conductance histogram is dominated by a pronounced peak at the quantum of conductance. This is in good agreement with our calculations based on a tight-binding model that indicate that the conductance of a Mg one-atom contact is dominated by a single fully open conduction channel.
We investigate the transport properties of a superconducting quantum point contact in the presence of an arbitrary periodic drive. In particular, we calculate the dc current and noise in the tunnel limit, obtaining general expressions in terms of photoassisted probabilities. Interesting features can be observed when the frequency is comparable to the gap. Here, we show that quantized Lorentzian pulses minimize the excess noise, further strengthening the hierarchy among different periodic drives observed in the electron quantum optics domain. In this regime, the excess noise is directly connected to the overlap between electron and hole energy distributions driven out of equilibrium by the applied voltage. In the adiabatic limit, where the frequency of the drive is very small compared to the superconducting gap, we recover the conventional Shapiro-spikes physics in the supercurrent.
We report on the observation of the giant photoconductance of a quantum point contact (QPC) in tunneling regime excited by terahertz radiation. Studied QPCs are formed in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure with a high-electron-mobility two-dimensional electron gas. We demonstrate that irradiation of strongly negatively biased QPCs by laser radiation with frequency f = 0.69 THz and intensity 50 mW/cm^2 results in two orders of magnitude enhancement of the QPC conductance. The effect has a superlinear intensity dependence and increases with the dark conductivity decrease. It is also characterized by strong polarization and frequency dependencies. We demonstrate that all experimental findings can be well explained by the photon-mediated tunneling through the QPC. Corresponding calculations are in a good agreement with the experiment.
We describe a method for fabrication of uniform aluminum nanowires with diameters below 15 nm. Electron beam lithography is used to define narrow wires, which are then etched using a sodium bicarbonate solution, while their resistance is simultaneously measured in-situ. The etching process can be stopped when the desired resistance is reached, and can be restarted at a later time. The resulting nanowires show a superconducting transition as a function of temperature and magnetic field that is consistent with their diameter. The width of the transition is similar to that of the lithographically defined wires, indicating that the etching process is uniform and that the wires are undamaged. This technique allows for precise control over the normal state resistance and can be used to create a variety of aluminum nanodevices.
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