Point-contact electrodes to probe charging effects in individual ultrasmall cobalt clusters

A new technique to probe a single nanometer-scale magnetic particle by measuring the tunneling current through point-contact electrodes is described. The tunnel junctions are formed by a bulk cobalt bottom electrode, a monolayer of ultrasmall Co clusters sandwiched between two Al2O3 barriers and a point-contact top electrode, defined by e-beam lithography and permitting to study the quantum transport through an isolated cluster. We report on single electron charging effects such as Coulomb blockade and Coulomb staircase which are undoubtedly consistent with the tunneling through a single Co cluster. One of our devices exhibits a Coulomb gap of 380 mV which is, to our knowledge, one of the largest values ever reported in metallic granular systems.