Related papers: Mechanical, Electrical, and Magnetic Properties of…
This thesis is dedicated to the synthesis, characterization and the study of electrical transport through metal nanowires and nanotubes. The metal nanowires(Ni, Cu) and nanotubes(Cu) are synthesised by electrochemical deposition in…
The evolution of the structure and conductance of an Al nanowire subject to a tensile stress has been studied by first-principles total-energy simulations. Our calculations show the correlation between discontinuous changes in the force…
The thermoelectric properties of scandium nitride are strongly influenced by structural and electronic factors arising from defects and impurities. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which these microscopic features affect transport are not…
A statistical analysis of the breaking behavior of Ni nanowires is presented. Using molecular dynamic simulations, we have determined the time evolution of both the nanowire atomic structure and its minimum cross section (Sm(t)).…
In this paper we review the theory of silicon nanowires. We focus on nanowires with diameters below 10 nm, where quantum effects become important and the properties diverge significantly from those of bulk silicon. These wires can be…
Using an atomic force microscope we have created nanotube junctions such as buckles and crossings within individual single-wall metallic carbon nanotubes connected to metallic electrodes. The electronic transport properties of these…
One of the major industrial challenges is to profit from some fascinating physical features present at the nanoscale. The production of dissipationless nanoswitches (or nanocontacts) is one of such attractive applications. Nevertheless, the…
We present a comprehensive first-principles study of the ballistic transport properties of low dimensional nanostructures such as linear chains of atoms (Al, C) and carbon nanotubes in presence of defects. A novel approach is introduced…
Scanning tunnelling microscopy and break-junction experiments realize metallic and molecular nanocontacts that act as ideal one-dimensional channels between macroscopic electrodes. Emergent nanoscale phenomena typical of these systems…
The electrical transport properties of atomic-scale conductors are reviewed, with an emphasis on the relations of this problem with studies on quantum size effects in metallic clusters. A brief introduction is given of the natural formalism…
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…
Landauer's formula is the standard theoretical tool to examine ballistic transport in nano- and meso-scale junctions, but it necessitates that any variation of the junction with time must be slow compared to characteristic times of the…
The conducting and mechanical properties of a metallic nanowire formed at the junction between two macroscopic metallic electrodes are investigated. Both two- and three-dimensional wires with a W(ide)-N(arrow)-W(ide) geometry are modelled…
By considering the direction of charge carriers and the conservation of probablity current the transmission properties of graphene Zener tunnelling nano-devices were obtained. The scattering properties were then used with an adaptation of…
A powerful technique is introduced for simulating mechanical and electromechanical properties of one-dimensional nanostructures under arbitrary combinations of bending, twisting, and stretching. The technique is based on a novel control of…
Conductance histograms are a valuable tool to study the intrinsic conduction properties of metallic atomic-sized contacts. These histograms show a peak structure, which is characteristic of the type of metal under investigation. Despite the…
Silicon nanowires have attracted considerable interest due to their wide-ranging applications in nanoelectromechanical systems and nanoelectronics. Molecular dynamics simulations are powerful tools for studying the mechanical properties of…
So far transport properties of nanoscale contacts have been mostly studied within the static scattering approach. The electron dynamics and the transient behavior of current flow, however, remain poorly understood. We present a numerical…
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 describe how to treat the interaction of travelling electrons with localised vibrational modes in nanojunctions. We present a multichannel scattering technique which can be applied to calculate the transport properties for realistic…