[摘要]：We report the use of MeV ion-irradiation-induced plastic deformation of amorphous materials to fabricate electrodes with nanometer-sized gaps. Plastic deformation of the amorphous metal Pd80Si20 is induced by 4.64 MeV O2+ ion irradiation, allowing the complete closing of a sub-micrometer gap. We measure the evolving gap size in situ by monitoring the field emission current-voltage (I-V) characteristics between electrodes. The I-V behavior is consistent with Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. We show that using feedback control on this signal permits gap size fabrication with atomic-scale precision. We expect this approach to nanogap fabrication will enable the practical realization of single molecule controlled devices and sensors. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3702778]
