The influence of phonon softening on the superconducting critical temperature of Sn nanostructures.

The increase in superconducting transition temperature (TC) of Sn nanostructures in comparison to bulk, was studied. Changes in the phonon density of states (PDOS) of the weakly coupled superconductor Sn were analyzed and correlated with the increase in TC measured by magnetometry. The PDOS of all nanostructured samples shows a slightly increased number of low-energy phonon modes and a strong decrease in the number of high-energy phonon modes in comparison to the bulk Sn PDOS. The phonon densities of states, which were determined previously using nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, were used to calculate the superconducting transition temperature using the Allen-Dynes-McMillan (ADMM) formalism. Both the calculated as well as the experimentally determined values of TC show an increase compared to the bulk superconducting transition temperature. The good agreement between these values indicates that phonon softening has a major influence on the superconducting transition temperature of Sn nanostructures. The influence of electron confinement effects appears to be minor in these systems.

Unraveling the atomic structure, ripening behavior, and electronic structure of supported Au20 clusters.

The free-standing Au20 cluster has a unique tetrahedral shape and a large HOMO-LUMO (highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) gap of around 1.8 electron volts. The "magic" Au20 has been intensively used as a model system for understanding the catalytic and optical properties of gold nanoclusters. However, direct real-space ground-state characterization at the atomic scale is still lacking, and obtaining fundamental information about the corresponding structural, electronic, and dynamical properties, is challenging. Here, using cluster-beam deposition and low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, atom-resolved topographic images and electronic spectra of supported Au20 clusters are obtained. We demonstrate that individual size-selected Au20 on ultrathin NaCl films maintains its pyramidal structure and large HOMO-LUMO gap. At higher cluster coverages, we find sintering of the clusters via Smoluchowski ripening to Au20n agglomerates. The evolution of the electron density of states deduced from the spectra reveals gap reduction with increasing agglomerate size.

Room temperature single electron transistor based on a size-selected aluminium cluster.

Single electron transistors (SETs) are powerful devices to study the properties of nanoscale objects. However, the capabilities of placing a nano-object between electrical contacts under pristine conditions are lacking. Here, we developed a versatile two point contacting approach that tackles this challenge, which is demonstrated by constructing in situ a prototypical SET device consisting of a single aluminium cluster of 66 ± 5 atoms, deposited directly in a gold nanogap using an innovative cluster beam deposition technique. The gate driven conductance measurements demonstrate Coulomb blockade oscillations at room temperature correlating with an extracted charging energy of 0.14 eV, which is five times larger than kBT at 300 K. Our work provides a model SET device platform to probe the quantum features of nano-objects with high precision.

Decorating graphene with size-selected few-atom clusters: a novel approach to investigate graphene-adparticle interactions.

We investigated the interaction between size-selected Au2 and Au3 clusters and graphene. Hereto preformed clusters are deposited on graphene field-effect transistors, a novel approach which offers a high control over the number of atoms per cluster, the deposition energy and the deposited density. The induced p-doping and charge carrier scattering indicate that a major part of the deposited clusters remains on the graphene flake as either individual or sub-nm coalesced entities. This is independently confirmed by scanning electron microscopy on the same devices after current annealing. Our novel approach provides perspectives for the electronic sensing of metallic clusters down to their atom-by-atom size-specific properties, and exploiting the tunability of clusters for tailoring desired properties in graphene.

Size-Dependent Penetration of Gold Nanoclusters through a Defect-Free, Nonporous NaCl Membrane.

Membranes and their size-selective filtering properties are universal in nature and their behavior is exploited to design artificial membranes suited for, e.g., molecule or nanoparticle filtering and separation. Exploring and understanding penetration and transmission mechanisms of nanoparticles in thin-film systems may provide new opportunities for size selective deposition or embedding of the nanoparticles. Here, we demonstrate an unexpected finding that the sieving of metal nanoparticles through atomically thin nonporous alkali halide films on a metal support is size dependent and that this sieving effect can be tuned via the film thickness. Specifically, relying on scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, combined with density functional theory calculations, we find that defect-free NaCl films on a Au(111) support act as size-dependent membranes for deposited Au nanoclusters. The observed sieving ability is found to originate from a driving force toward the metal support and from the dynamics of both the nanoparticles and the alkali halide films.