Related papers: Single atom adhesion in optimized gold nanojunctio…
The formation and rupture of atomic-sized contacts is modelled by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Such nano-contacts are realized in scanning tunnelling microscope and mechanically controlled break junction experiments. These…
The transition from tunneling to metallic contact between two surfaces does not always involve a jump, but can be smooth. We have observed that the configuration and material composition of the electrodes before contact largely determines…
Understanding the formation of metal-molecule contact at the microscopic level is the key towards controlling and manipulating atomic scale devices. Employing two isomers of bipyridine, $4, 4^\prime$ bipyridine and $2, 2^\prime$ bipyridine…
We have studied experimentally the phenomena of jump-to-contact (JC) and jump-out-of-contact (JOC) in gold electrodes. JC can be observed at the first contact when the two metals approach each other while JOC occurs in the last contact…
Despite extensive investigations of dissipation and deformation processes in micro- and nano- sized metallic samples, the mechanisms at play during deformation of systems with ultimate, molecular size remain elusive. While metallic…
The point contact of a tunnel tip approaching towards Ag(111) and Cu(111) surfaces is investigated with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A sharp jump-to-contact, random in nature, is observed in the conductance. After point…
We investigate atomistic details of a single atom extraction process realized by using scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip-cluster interaction on a Ag(111) surface at 6 K. Single atoms are extracted from a silver cluster one atom at a…
We present an in-depth study of electronic transport in atomic-sized gold contacts using Break-Junction (BJ) techniques under cryogenic and ambient conditions. Our experimental results, supported by classical molecular dynamics (CMD)…
We present ab initio calculations of transport properties of atomic-sized aluminum contacts in the presence of oxygen. The experimental situation is modeled by considering a single oxygen atom (O) or one of the molecules O2 and O3 bridging…
Electrical conductance through various nanocontacts between gold electrodes is studied by using the density functional theory, scalar-relativistic pseudopotentials, generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation energy and…
The process of creating an atomically defined and robust metallic tip is described and quantified using measurements of contact conductance between gold electrodes and numerical simulations. Our experiments show how the same conductance…
We apply the mechanically controllable break junctions technique to investigate the transition from tunneling to direct contact in tungsten. This transition is quite different from that of other metals and is determined by the local…
Atomistic simulations are used to test the equations of continuum contact mechanics in nanometer scale contacts. Nominally spherical tips, made by bending crystals or cutting crystalline or amorphous solids, are pressed into a flat, elastic…
The continuing miniaturization of microelectronics raises the prospect of nanometre-scale devices with mechanical and electrical properties that are qualitatively different from those at larger dimensions. The investigation of these…
We consider tunneling of two interacting atoms with an even spatial symmetry. The atoms are prepared in two lowest excited states with respect to relative and center-of-mass motions. We observe monotonic and non-monotonic dependence of the…
The correlation between transport properties across sub-nanometric metallic gaps and the optical response of the system is a complex effect which is determined by the fine atomic-scale details of the junction structure. As experimental…
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) supplemented with a force sensor is used to study the mechanical properties of a novel metallic nanostructure: a freely suspended chain of single gold atoms. We find that the bond strength of the…
We present a microscopic theory of single-electron tunneling through metallic nanoparticles connected to the electrodes through molecular bridges. It combines the theory of electron transport through molecular junctions with the description…
We investigate the quantum dynamics of two interacting bosonic atoms confined in a one-dimensional anharmonic trap. The tunneling rate, an experimentally measurable parameter of the system, was calculated as a function of the effective…
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…