Suspended Nanowire Devices as Templates for Size-selected Nanocluster Networks

The study of metallic clusters at the nano-scale has revealed many finite-size effects not present in bulk materials, including electron shell structure, enhanced surface plasmon resonance, cluster-cluster charge tunneling, and Josephson current in potential superconducting arrays. Many of these features have been analyzed spectroscopically in the gas phase and via probe microscopy on surfaces, but an ongoing challenge is arranging size-selected nanoclusters into device geometries which would enable the exploration and optimization of transport phenomena based on their unique properties. We propose the use of suspended nanowire devices as scaffolds for organizing nanocluster assemblies. We will describe progress toward the fabrication and characterization of nanocluster chains supported by carbon nanotubes and by isolated bacterial flagella, both of which offer unique environments to study morphological and electronic properties of clusters on surfaces. Future work with such devices, employing varying nanocluster materials and tuned deposition conditions, will make it possible simultaneously to optimize the properties both of individual size-selected particles and of their nanoscale assemblies and networks.