Charge transport through chains of nanoparticles

We present transport measurements through nanoparticles as well as preparation techniques to contact short chains of nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are deposited onto a mica substrate in a dewetting process of hexane solution containing the nanoparticles. The measurements were done in a self-developed probing tip setup inside a SEM, where the probing tips were driven by piezoelectric motors. The platinum iridium tips were fabricated by anodic dissolving in a drop-off method which results in sharp tip diameters. With this setup it was possible to contact and measure the nanoparticles under vacuum conditions. The I–V characteristics show a power law behavior as expected for low dimensional cluster systems. Transport in the device is expected to be influenced by Coulomb blockade effects and disorder.