MONOELECTRON PHENOMENA IN NANOMETER-SCALE PARTICLES FORMED IN LB FILMS

Exposure of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of fatty acid salts of bivale nt metals to an atmosphere of H2S allows to form in them small particl es of metal sulphides, such as CdS, PbS, CuS etc. Different investigat ion techniques allow one to estimate the sizes of the particles to lie within the nanometer range. The particle sizes are suitable for the f ormation of junctions displaying monoelectron phenomena. The junctions were formed using scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), which allowed to localise the particle position on the graphite substrate. Then vol tage-current (V-l) characteristics were measured using graphite as the first electrode and the STM tip as the second one. The shape of the V -I characteristic curves revealed monoelectron phenomena in such junct ions at room temperature. The specific electronic properties of the pa rticles, such as the bandgap, turned out to be non-critical for the or igin of the phenomena.