| This thesis is concerned with the study of electron transfer in the sandwich structure composed of a Au (111) surface, an alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer, and gold nanocrystals by the scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and spectroscopic analysis in UHV conditions. To accomplish this, methods to deposit and process the gold thin film have been developed. Gold nanocrystals with sizes near 3 nm have been synthesized and attached to the 1,8-octanedithiol SAM on Au (111). STM and XPS have been employed to characterize the bare Au (111), gold nanocrystals, self-assembled monolayers, and the Au (111)/self-assembled monolayer/gold nanocrystals system. STS has been used to investigate the change of the electron transfer behavior in the different systems. Lithography methods based on SPM also have been developed to enable future studies in more complex systems. |
