Controlled deposition of gold nanowires on semiconducting and nonconducting surfaces

One of the pressing problems in advancing nanoelectronic applications and systems is to develop a simple means of freely connecting at a nanometric level electronic components under ambient conditions without the need for vacuum or electron or ion beam operational steps. Such environments may have detrimental effects on the molecular or biomolecular constituents of molecular electronic circuits. Although there has been defined progress in connecting structures that are of nanometric dimension, new methods in this area of nanotechnology with general applicability add to the arsenal of tools for addressing this standing problem. This paper addresses freely placing under ambient conditions, with fountain pen nanolithography, a 120 nm dimension line of gold nanocolloids deposited with precise registration in a 100 nm gap between two 250 nm wide conducting electrodes patterned by electron beam lithography.