Fabrication and lateral electronic transport measurements of gold nanowires

A technique for fabrication of gold nanowires on a Si(111) surface in ultrahigh vacuum and their electronic transport properties are presented. Gold wires with widths as small as 4 nm are produced by using a gold-coated piezoresistive cantilever in atomic force microscope contact mode. This technique allows patterns to be written at will. In situ electronic transport measurements of a gold wire as long as 7 μm and 4 nm wide show unambiguous metallic behavior. This fabrication method could become pivotal within the next generation of nanoscale microprocessors.