Formation and Electrical Interfacing of Nanocrystal-Molecule Nanostructures
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1154-B06-07
Formation and Electrical Interfacing of Nanocrystal-Molecule Nanostructures Claire Barrett1, Gaëtan Lévêque2, Hugh Doyle1, Donocadh P. Lydon3, Gareth Redmond1§, Trevor R. Spalding3 and Aidan J. Quinn1* 1 Nanotechnology Group, Tyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings, Prospect Row, Cork, Ireland. 2 Photonics Theory Group, Tyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings, Prospect Row, Cork, Ireland. 3 Department of Chemistry, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland § Current Address: School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. *Corresponding Author. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT The formation of nanocrystal-molecule-nanocrystal nanostructures via controlled mixing of Au nanocrystals and bifunctional Re linkers is reported. UV-visible extinction data, coupled with histogram analysis of nanostructures measured using scanning electron microscopy has shown a characteristic optical response at wavelengths close to 600 nm following formation of dimer and trimer nanostructures. Directed assembly processes based on dielectrophoretic trapping have also been developed for electrical interfacing of these nanostructures between top-down nanoelectrode pairs for electrical characterization. INTRODUCTION Recent developments in the design and synthesis of nanoscale building blocks as active elements for information storage, biosensing and photoconductive devices have the potential to revolutionize several emerging technology markets across multiple sectors including healthcare, printable electronics, security and energy conversion. Functional organic molecules (~1 – 2 nm length scale) are attractive candidates as building blocks due to their composition-, size- and structure-dependent electronic properties, the ability to design and manipulate these properties via low-cost chemical synthesis, and finally the potential for formation of ordered structures through (bio)-molecular recognition and self-assembly [1, 2]. Ligand-stabilized inorganic nanocrystals ( ~2 – 50 nm core diameter) also represent attractive candidates, both as building blocks with novel functionality (e.g., single charge tunneling or quantum confinement) and also as terminals or nodes to bridge the gap between length scales accessible via top-down lithography (~ 25 – 50 nm) and molecular length scales [3-6]. The plasmonic properties of nanocrystal-molecule nanostructures have also attracted considerable attention [7-10]. We present recent results on solution-based formation of nanocrystal-molecule-nanocrystal nanostructures and investigation of the novel plasmonic properties of these nanostructures via measurement and simulation. Further, we report on directed assembly of nanostructures at contact nanoelectrodes and initial investigations of charge transport in these “few-molecule” devices. EXPERIMENT Citrate-stabilized Au nanocrystals with core diameters d = 20 ± 2 nm were purchased from British Biocell Ltd. Ultrapure deionized water with resistivity 18.2 MΩ cm (ELGA PURELAB Ultra) was used in all experiments. To improve
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