Electroplating silver tetracyanoquinodimethane between gold micro-gap electrodes for the fabrication of coplanar devices, a new way to integrate material synthesis and devices fabrication within one step

Abstract

In this paper we propose a method for the integration of the synthesis of silver-tetracyanoquinodimethane (AgTCNQ) and the fabrication of its devices within one step. The method was performed by electroplating Ag between gold coplanar micro-gap electrodes in tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) solution. As soon as silver was electrochemically dissolved in the TCNQ solution, it immediately reacted with TCNQ to form AgTCNQ and then deposited between Au gap electrodes. With the continuing of the reaction, the Au micro-gap electrodes were connected by AgTCNQ to form Au/AgTCNQ/Au coplanar gap devices. With this electroplating technique, series gap devices of AgTCNQ were fabricated, and the devices exhibited switching phenomena with good reproducibility. This method integrated the synthesis of AgTCNQ and the fabrication of its devices within a single step, and should be also inspirable for other charge transfer complexes.