Cracking the problem of mass produced molecular junctions

Nanogap electrodes, basically pairs of electrodes with a nanometer-sized gap between them, are attracting attention as scaffolds to study, sense, or harness molecules, the smallest stable structures found in nature. So far, this has been realised using the common methods of mechanically controlled break junctions, scanning tunneling microscopy-based break junctions,or electromigrated break junctions. These techniques, however, are not useful for applications due to their lack of scalability. A team from TU Delft in collaboration with researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has now developed a novel way of fabricating molecular junctions.