Lifetime analysis of individual-atom contacts and crossover to geometric-shell structures in unstrained silver nanowires

• Christian Obermair,
• Holger Kuhn and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 740–745, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.81

• was formed by electrochemical deposition of silver into a nanoscale gap between two gold electrodes. Applying a control potential relative to a third, independent gate electrode allows opening and closing of an atomic-scale gap by the controlled and reversible relocation of individual atoms. In this

• point contacts obtained by electrochemical deposition allowed the direct observation of the fingerprints of atom-by-atom and subsequent layer-by-layer growth of the metallic point contacts. We gave a complete quantitative description of the different stages of nanowire growth: First, individual-atomic

The atomic force microscope as a mechano–electrochemical pen

• Christian Obermair,
• Andreas Wagner and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 659–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.70

• microscopy; deposition; electrochemistry; nanoelectronics; nanofabrication; nanolithography; nanotechnology; NEMS and MEMS; scanning probe lithography; Introduction The controlled, patterned, electrochemical deposition of metals at predefined positions on the nanometer scale is of great interest for

• electrochemical deposition of metals for the fabrication of atomic-scale contacts and switches. By electrochemical deposition of nanoscale silver contacts and subsequent electrochemical cycling, an electrically controllable single-atom relay was demonstrated, which allows the controlled switching of an electrical

• experiments demonstrated that the tip of an electrochemical STM can also be used for local electrochemical deposition. Material electrochemically deposited on an STM tip was subsequently transferred to the surface [22][23], allowing controlled metallic nanopatterning of surfaces. Improvements of STM-based