Electrical contacts between nanoengineered systems are expected to constitute the basic building blocks of future nanoscale electronics. However, the accurate characterization and understanding of electrical contacts at the nanoscale is an experimentally c ...
This thesis reports measurements concerning quantum size effects of single crystalline metallic islands by using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS). Different sample systems are presented in the following chapters. I ...
Using low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy at 5 and 50 K, we studied the linewidth of unoccupied quantum-well states in ultrathin Pb islands, grown on Si(111) on two different Pb/Si interfaces. A quantitative analysis of the differential conduct ...
The energy gap Delta of superconducting Pb islands grown on Si(111) was probed in situ between 5 and 60 monolayers by low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Delta was found to decrease from its bulk value as a function of inverse island thickness ...
