Electrical arc discharge in air between Pt-coated NEMS electrodes at nanoscale separation

Abstract

A thorough understanding of arc discharge mechanism as well as determination of arc discharge voltage at the nanometer scale remains challenging due to the complexities associated with electrode preparation and precisely maintaining nanoscale separations in experiments. This work addresses this challenge through a novel approach by accurately measuring electric breakdown/discharge voltages between Pt-coated Si electrodes with separations ranging from ∼5 nm to 370 nm using a combination of fixed and flexible nano-electrodes while inherently creating an ideal environment to mitigate the effect of mechanical vibrations on the measurement results. For separations of 10, 100, and 300 nm, the corresponding discharge voltages are ∼15, 75, and 160 V, respectively, with the apparent electric field for the 10 nm separation exceeding 1.5 GV m−1. The results acquired from the investigated electrode configuration closely resembling the laterally actuated nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) cantilever relays reveals strong agreement with NEMS relay breakdown characteristics, emphasizing the importance of arc discharge considerations while designing micro/nano electromechanical devices. Furthermore, deliberately applied arc discharge is shown to provide electrode nano-welding for realization of configurable NEMS circuits.