Development of a new molecular device using thermoelectric measurement system on nano-composite film

本研究的目的是在不施加强电场的情况下，实现一种阐明靶分子电导率和电子结构的新型分子装置。制作了用于热电测量的微米级和亚微米级电极图。作为该系统的测试用例，成功地测量了单个硼纳米带的塞贝克系数。在亚微米间隙的微电极之间制备了金属纳米粒子（Au）和氧化物绝缘体（Al_2O_3）的纳米复合膜，用于固定靶分子。金纳米粒子平均直径约为5nm，粒子间距离约为2nm，分布均匀。在某些情况下，发现了分子固定前后电流与偏置电压的变化曲线。然而，固定化不能重复检测。粒子间距离应该比我们研究的要小。

Purpose of this study is to realize a new molecular device that elucidates the conductivity and electronic structure of target molecules, without applying strong electric field. Micron- and submicron-scale electrode patterns for the thermoelectric measurement were fabricated. As a test case of this system, Seebeck coefficient of individual boron nanobelt was successfully measured. Nanocomposite films of metal nanoparticles (Au) and oxide insulator matrix (Al_2O_3) for immobilization of target molecule were fabricated between micro-electrodes with submicron gap length. The Au nanoparticles with average diameter of approximately 5nm, and inter-particle distance of 2nm were uniformly distributed. In some case, change in current vs bias voltage curve before and after molecular immobilization was found. However, the immobilization could not be reproducibly detected. The inter-particle distance should be smaller than that in our study.