Sculpting nanoelectrodes with a transmission electron beam for electrical and geometrical characterization of nanoparticles.

A method to produce metal electrodes with a gap of a few nanometers with a highly focused electron beam in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) is described. With this method the electrical and geometrical characterization of the same particle is possible. The I-V characteristics of a gold particle trapped between such electrodes showed the expected single-electron tunneling behavior, with a Coulomb gap corresponding to the geometry of the particle as observed with high-resolution TEM.