Electronic transport in Pd nanocluster devices

Palladium nanoclusters with an average diameter of 6.7 nm are prepared by magnetron sputtering and inert gas condensation technique. The nanoclusters are deposited between a pair of electrodes defined by optical lithography to create the device. The electronic transport in the devices is investigated by systematic current-voltage measurements. It is demonstrated through fitting the conductance-temperature profile into a conductance model that the conductance in the device is dominated by tunneling. The fitting provides meaningful physical parameters such as the number of nanoclusters within the conduction path, and it shows that some of the nanoclusters are fused together. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3574012]