1 - to 2 - nm -wide nanogaps fabricated with single-walled carbon nanotube shadow masks

The authors present a method for producing nanometer-scale gaps, based on metal evaporation through a suspended single-walled carbon nanotube acting as a shadow mask. 83% of the nanogap devices display current-voltage dependencies characteristic of direct electron tunneling. Fits to the current-voltage data yield gap widths in the 0.8–2.3nm range for these devices, dimensions that are well suited for single-molecule transport measurements.