Experimental conductance histograms for Na nanowires are analyzed in detail and compared to recent theoretical results on the stability of cylindrical and elliptical nanowires, using the free-electron model. We find a one-to-one correspondence between the peaks in the histograms and the most stable nanowire geometries, indicating that several of the commonly observed nanowires have elliptical cross sections.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0410286,
title = {Electronic shell effects and the stability of alkali nanowires},
author = {D. F. Urban and J. Bürki and A. I. Yanson and I. K. Yanson and C. A. Stafford and J. M. van Ruitenbeek and Hermann Grabert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0410286},
year = {2007}
}