title: Fabrication of a single metal nanowire connected with dissimilar metal electrodes and its application to chemical sensing.
abstract: We report a convenient method for the fabrication of a single metal nanowire connected with dissimilar metal electrodes and its application to chemical sensing. The method is based on a combination of atomic force microscopy nanomachining and conventional photolithography. The success of this integrated approach is confirmed by the linear current-voltage behavior of the created nanowires and comparable resistivities with those reported previously. The chemical sensing capability is demonstrated by the selective binding of a self-assembled monolayer onto a single Au nanowire connected with Ti electrodes and the subsequent resistance increase due to increased surface scattering effects after adsorption. It is found that the resistance increases by around 9% after the complete coverage of either octadecanethiol or dodecanethiol molecules onto a 20 nm thick Au nanowire. A theoretical explanation for the relationship between the resistance increase and the alkanethiol concentration is also given.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsin-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hsiang-An
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Heh-Nan
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Lin