title: Mechanical gate control for atom-by-atom cluster assembly with scanning probe microscopy.
abstract: Nanoclusters supported on substrates are of great importance in physics and chemistry as well as in technical applications, such as single-electron transistors and nanocatalysts. The properties of nanoclusters differ significantly from those of either the constituent atoms or the bulk solid, and are highly sensitive to size and chemical composition. Here we propose a novel atom gating technique to assemble various atom clusters composed of a defined number of atoms at room temperature. The present gating operation is based on the transfer of single diffusing atoms among nanospaces governed by gates, which can be opened in response to the chemical interaction force with a scanning probe microscope tip. This method provides an alternative way to create pre-designed atom clusters with different chemical compositions and to evaluate their chemical stabilities, thus enabling investigation into the influence that a single dopant atom incorporated into the host clusters has on a given cluster stability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center, The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayhan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yurtsever
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hirayama
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan [2] Center for Science and Technology under Extreme Conditions, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneyama-Cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center, The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Seizo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morita