  We report on the fabrication and current-voltage (IV) characteristics of very
narrow, strip-like arrays of metal nanoparticles. The arrays were formed from
gold nanocrystals self-assembled between in-plane electrodes. Local
cross-linking of the ligands by exposure to a focused electron beam and
subsequent removal of the unexposed regions produced arrays as narrow as four
particles wide and sixty particles long, with high degree of structural
ordering. Remarkably, even for such quasi-one-dimensional strips, we find
nonlinear, power-law IV characteristics similar to that of much wider
two-dimensional (2D) arrays. However, in contrast to the robust behavior of 2D
arrays, the shape of the IV characteristics is much more sensitive to
temperature changes and temperature cycling. Furthermore, at low temperatures
we observe pronounced two-level current fluctuations, indicative of discrete
rearrangements in the current paths. We associate this behavior with the
inherent high sensitivity of single electron tunneling to the polarization
caused by the quenched offset charges in the underlying substrate.
