Nanomechanical shuttles transferring small groups of electrons or even
individual electrons from one electrode to another offer a novel approach to
the problem of controlled charge transport. Here, we report the fabrication of
shuttle-junctions consisting of a 20 nm diameter gold nanoparticle embedded
within the gap between two gold electrodes. The nanoparticle is attached to the
electrodes through a monolayer of flexible organic molecules which play the
role of springs so that when a sufficient voltage bias is applied, then
nanoparticle starts to oscillate transferring electrons from one electrode to
the other. Current-voltage characteristics for the fabricated devices have been
measured and compared with the results of our computer simulations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure