Contact printed Co/insulator/Co molecular junctions

The authors report the contact printing of a Au ∕ Co double layer (total thickness ∼ 20 - 40 nm ) onto a self-assembled monolayer surface to form molecular junctions under ambient conditions. The feature size ranges from 50 × 50 μ m 2 to 2 × 2 mm 2 . Grazing incident x-ray diffraction of the multilayer junction shows all expected Au peaks, while elemental Co was confirmed by energy dispersive spectroscopy. Film thickness, roughness, and density were characterized by x-ray reflectivity. I - V measurements show a prominent hysteresis, likely associated with charge trapping at the metal-organic interface, not an intrinsic feature of alkanedithiol molecules.