  We have developed a technology to reproducibly make gaps with distance
control on the single atom scale. The gold contacts are flat on the nanometre
scale and are fabricated on an oxidized aluminium film that serves as a gate.
We show that these contacts are clean and can be stabilized via chemical
functionalization. Deposition of conjugated molecules leads to an increase in
the gap conductance of several orders of magnitude. Stable current-voltage
characteristics at room temperature are slightly nonlinear. At low temperature,
they are highly nonlinear and show a clear gate effect.
