Abstract
We have employed scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) to explore the assembly and electron transport properties of an ordered layer of passivated gold clusters adsorbed onto an alkanethiol passivated Au (1 1 1) surface. The passivation of the Au (1 1 1) surface stabilises the cluster layer. STM images show ordered hexagonal arrays of the nanoparticles extending over distances >100 nm with a mean nearest neighbour spacing of 6.5 nm. I–V measurements show a strong non-linear I–V relationship, as well as equidistant steps of width ∼0.15 V above a bias voltage of ∼2 V, attributed to a Coulomb staircase, i.e., single electron charging, in this structure.
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