  Using thermal emission microscopy, we investigate heating in Pt nanowires
before and during electromigration. The wires are observed to reach
temperatures in excess of 1000 K. This is beyond the thermal decomposition
threshold for many organic molecules of interest for single molecule
measurements with electromigrated nanogaps. Blackbody spectra of the hot Pt
wires are measured and found to agree well with finite element modeling
simulations of the electrical and thermal transport.
