Growth of segmented gold nanorods with nanogaps by the electrochemical wet etching technique for single-electron transistor applications.

The growth of multisegment nanorods comprising gold (Au) and sacrificial silver (Ag) segments (Au-Ag-Au or Au-Ag-Au-Ag-Au) using the electrochemical wet etching method is reported. The nanorods were fabricated using an alumina template of thickness 100 microm and pore size of 200 nm. A variety of nanorods from single to seven segments comprising alternate Au and Ag segments were fabricated with better control of growth rate. The multisegment nanorods were selectively etched by removing the Ag segments to create gaps in the fabricated nanorods. A careful investigation led to the creation of a wide variety of nanogaps in the fabricated multisegment nanorods. The size of the nanogap was controlled by the passage of current through the electrochemical process, and size below 10 nm was achievable at exchanged charges of approximately 1 mC. A further lowering in the size of nanogaps was achieved by diluting the silver plating solution and a segmented nanorod with nanogap (Au-nanogap-Au) of 3.8 nm at exchanged charges of 0.2 mC was successfully created. In addition, segmented nanorods with two or more nanogaps (Au-nanogap-Au-nanogap-Ag) placed symmetrically and asymmetrically on either side of the central Au segments were also created. A prototype of a single-electron transistor device based on segmented nanorods with two nanogaps is proposed. The results obtained could form the basis for the realization of quantum tunneling devices where the barrier thickness is very critical and demands values less than 5 nm. The encouraging results show the promise of multisegment nanorods for fabricating devices working at the de Broglie wavelength such as single-electron transistors.