Temporary Fullerene Films in Microelectromechanical Devices

In a proposed technique for fabrication of microelectromechanical devices, thin films of fullerenes would be used as temporary packaging to protect and position delicate components. The initial application of this technique would likely occur in the fabrication of devices in which quantum-mechanical tunneling of electrons across gaps about 1 nm wide would be exploited to measure subnanometer displacements of the components facing each other across the gaps.