Abstract
The formation of gold wires separated by a few nanometres is reported. Suchnanometre-separated gaps are formed by ramping, at ambient conditions, a bias voltageacross a thin gold wire until the wire breaks or fails. Externally heating the wire does notresult in a lowering of the mean bias or current conditions required for creatingthe break, although electromigration-based models predict rapid decreases inthe current required to cause the break. Based on measurements of changes inresistance during the voltage ramp, we determine that the temperature reachedin the wires is very large and can approach the melting point of gold. To avoiddeleterious effects of such large temperatures on molecules, we recommend herean alternate procedure for utilizing the break protocol in molecular electronics.
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