Wiring of metallized microtubules by electron beam-induced structuring

Abstract

Molecular electronics emerge as a possibility to continue the miniaturization of electronic circuits down to the lower nanometre scale. One significant challenge is the electrical connection of molecular devices by nanowires. We present here the realization of a new approach for the wiring of nanostructures by linking metallized microtubules (MTs) to prestructured microelectrodes. MTs (tube-like protein structures) were metallized and deposited on microstructured substrates. Electron beam-induced deposition was used for structuring connecting gold lines as nanoelectrodes, which wire a single MT to microelectrodes created by photolithography. Initial electrical measurements confirmed the suitability of the set-up for linking nanometre-scale structures to a measurement device. A metallized MT yielded a resistance below 50 over the length of 1 µm.