Calibration of the distance between electrodes of mechanically controlled break junctions using field emission resonance

This article presents an accurate method for calibration of the relative displacement Δz of mechanically controllable break junction electrodes and determination of the metal work function φ using oscillating behavior of tunnel conductance (known also as a Gundlach oscillation) in a field emission region. The precision of the proposed method is at least one order of magnitude better than the most reasonable estimations that have previously been possible. In combination with tunnel current-distance dependence I(z) measurements, the absolute vacuum gap can be evaluated with an accuracy ±0.25 Å.