Density of electronic states in gold nanoclusters pulsed laser deposited on HOPG

The results of the experimental investigation of tunneling current-voltage characteristics of Au nanoclusters pulsed laser deposited on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite are presented. It is demonstrated that the observed size dependence of the tunneling conductance of Au nanoclusters can be caused by the change of the density of electronic states at the Fermi energy due to the interaction of conduction electrons with non-regular boundary of a cluster under investigation.