Structural and electrical characterization of gold nanoclusters in thin SiO2 films: Realization of a nanoscale tunnel rectifier

Conductive atomic force microscopy has been used to measure the I-V characteristics of nanometric An clusters embedded in a SiO2 film prepared by sputter deposition and low temperature annealing. Highly local asymmetric rectifier I-V characteristics were evidenced and modelled in terms of electrical transport through an asymmetric double barrier tunnel junction SiO2/Au cluster/SiO2. The threshold voltage depends strongly on the cluster size and barrier thickness according to the model given. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.