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Molecules with versatile functionalities and well-defined structures, canserve as building blocks for extreme nanoscale devices. This requires theirprecise integration into functional heterojunctions, most commonly in the formof metal-molecule-metal architectures. Structural damage and nonuniformitiescaused by current fabrication techniques, however, limit their effectiveincorporation. Here, we present a hybrid fabrication approach enabling uniformmolecular gaps. Template-stripped lithographically-patterned gold electrodeswith sub-nanometer roughness are used as the bottom contacts upon which themolecular layer is formed through self-assembly. The top contacts are assembledusing dielectrophoretic trapping of colloidal gold nanorods, resulting inuniform sub-5 nm junctions. In these electrically-active designs, we furtherexplore the possibility of mechanical tunability. The presence of molecules mayhelp control sub-nanometer mechanical modulation which is conventionallydifficult to achieve due to instabilities caused by surface adhesive forces.Our approach is versatile, providing a platform to develop and study activemolecular gaps towards functional nanodevices.

Precise Fabrication of Uniform Molecular Gaps for Active Nanoscale Devices