  Transition Voltage Spectroscopy (TVS) has been proposed as a tool to analyze
charge transport through molecular junctions. We extend TVS to Au-vacuum-Au
junctions and study the distance dependence of the transition voltage V_t(d)
for clean electrodes in cryogenic vacuum. On the one hand, this allows us to
provide an important reference for V_t(d)-measurements on molecular junctions.
On the other hand, we show that TVS forms a simple and powerful test for vacuum
tunneling models.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics