Thin film mechanically controllable break junctions

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An adaptation of the mechanically controllable break junction technique using thin metallic films to create point contacts and tunnel junctions is presented. The junctions that are created using this very simple method are extremely stable, and can easily be adjusted from rather large point contacts (R≊0.1 Ω) to high-resistance (1010 Ω) tunnel junctions. The electrodes can be kept very clean by breaking the sample in ultrahigh vacuum or in a very pure helium atmosphere at 1–4 K. Point-contact spectra of good quality were measured for contacts of 0.1–500 Ω. For very small contacts, the expected steplike increase of junction resistance with decreasing contact size was observed, with a jump to tunneling behavior occurring at resistances of 12–14 kΩ.