Charge injection into discrete states of individual electroluminescent Au nanoclusters

Nanoscale break junctions created through electromigration naturally produce arrays of individual gold nanoclusters spanning the electrodes. These spatially resolvable individual nanoclusters electroluminesce in response to pulsed external electric fields, producing a noncontroversial, corroborative readout of nanoscale charge injection. Modulation of the electrical pulse sequence timing, polarity, and amplitude reveals electroluminescence from discrete electronic energy levels and provides a measurement of the relative coupling between an emitting cluster and its individual electrodes.