METHOD OF FABRICATING NANOWIRES AND ELECTRODES HAVING NANOGAPS

摘要

A cost-effective and highly reproducible method of fabricating nanowires, and small gaps or spacings in nanowires is disclosed. The nanogaps bridge an important size regime between 1 nm and 100 ran. The nanogaps can be selectively predetermined to be as small as 1.0 nm, or larger than 1000 nm. These electrode gaps can be useful in preparing molecular electronic devices that involve making electrical contact to individual molecules, such as biomolecules, or small clusters of molecules. Microelectrodes having nanogaps for electrical and magnetic applications formed by the method, and as well as biosensors and their use in detecting a biological species, such as DNA, are also disclosed.