We have determined the transmission coefficients of atomic-sized Zn contacts using a new type of breakjunction which contains a whisker as a central bridge. We find that in the last conductance plateau the transport is unexpectedly dominated by a well-transmitting single conduction channel. We explain the experimental findings with the help of a tight-binding model which shows that in an one-atom Zn contact the current proceeds through the 4s and 4p orbitals of the central atom.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0407207,
title = {Conduction Channels of One-Atom Zinc Contacts},
author = {M. Häfner and P. Konrad and F. Pauly and J. C. Cuevas and E. Scheer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0407207},
year = {2009}
}