Patent ID: 8918152

Claim:
A method for fabricating a plurality of nanogaps, comprising: controllably applying a voltage simultaneously across a plurality of constrictions residing in a first conductive material comprising a plurality of ions, the constrictions being placed in parallel electrical communication with one another by a second conductive material, the electrical resistance between neighboring constrictions being less than the electrical resistance across a constriction, the controllably applied voltage giving rise to heating within the constrictions, thereby forming the plurality of nanogaps simultaneously, the heating within the constrictions giving rise to the essentially simultaneous formation of the plurality of nanogaps upon application of the voltage, each nanogap comprising two opposing faces, each face of the opposing electrodes being essentially crystalline, and the mean separation distance between the opposing faces of the nanogaps is in a range of from about 0.1 nm less than 5 nm.