Finite-size effects in Passivated Gold Nanocrystals.







Students: L. E. Harrell, T. P. Bigioni (Chem), D. K. Guthrie (EE), and

W. G. Cullen.





The low-temperature STM is currently devoted to studies of

single-electron charging and energy-level quantization in passivated

gold nanocrystals that are prepared in Prof. Whetten's group.  The

capacitance of these structures is so small that a finite voltage is

required to transfer even a single electron to the nanocrystal.

Recent measurements have detected discrete peaks in the tunneling

spectrum that are due to the "particle-in-a-box" states of the

nanocrystals.