Abstract
This paper investigates the influence of the atmosphere used in the fabrication of top electrodes from the liquid eutectic of gallium and indium (EGaIn) (the so-called “EGaIn” electrodes), and in measurements of current density, J(V) (A/cm2), across self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) incorporated into Ag/SR//Ga2O3/EGaIn junctions, on values of J(V) obtained using these electrodes. A gas-tight measurement chamber was used to control the atmosphere in which the electrodes were formed, and also to control the environment in which the electrodes were used to measure current densities across SAM-based junctions. Seven different atmospheres—air, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and ammonia, as well as air containing vapors of acetic acid or water—were surveyed using both “rough” conical-tip electrodes, and “smooth” hanging-drop electrodes. (The manipulation of the oxide film during the creation of the conical-tip electrodes leads to substantial, micrometer-scale roughness on the surface of the electrode, the extrusion of...
Highlights
Measurements of tunneling currents across insulating self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are revealing the relationships between atomic/molecular-level structures of organic matter and this prototypically quantum behavior
The use of eutectic gallium indium alloy (EGaIn) electrodes in large-area (~100 μm2) junctions[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] of the form template-stripped silver (AgTS)/SAM//Ga2O3/EGaIn is a convenient technique to use for physical-organic studies of charge transport across SAMs.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
We measured rates of charge transport through junctions incorporating two different substrates i) a SAM formed from n-dodecanethiol (SC12) or 12-mercaptododecanoic acid (SC11CO2H) on template-stripped silver (AgTS)[22]; the resulting junctions have the form AgTS-S(CH2)11T//Ga2O3/EGaIn, where T = CH3 or CO2H, and ii) a freshly cleaved, bare, graphite substrate[23,24] formed by gluing a highly-ordered pyrolytic graphite chip to a metal shim
Summary
Measurements of tunneling currents across insulating self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are revealing the relationships between atomic/molecular-level structures of organic matter and this prototypically quantum behavior. The objectives of this work were to determine i) the influence of the atmosphere in which Ga2O3/EGaIn “conical-tip” and “spherical hanging-drop” electrodes were formed and used on their electrical properties; ii) the influence of the Ga2O3 film (both when present, and when minimal or absent) on the absolute value, and standard deviation, of measurements of current density J at voltage V (J(V), A·cm-2); and iii) the influence of the roughness of the Ga2O3 film on measurements on J(V)
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