Related papers: The Nanoscale Free-Electron Model
Nanowires are formed by indenting and subsequently retracting two pieces of sodium metal. Their cross-section gradually reduces upon retraction and the diameters can be obtained from the conductance. In previous work we have demonstrated…
Long, cylindrical metal nanowires have recently been observed to form and be stable for seconds at a time at room temperature. Their stability and structural dynamics is well described by a continuum model, the nanoscale free-electron…
Nanowires play a pivotal role across a spectrum of disciplines such as nanoelectromechanical systems, nanoelectronics, and energy applications. As nanowires continue to diminish in dimensions, their mechanical characteristics are…
A quantum-mechanical stability analysis of metallic nanowires within the free-electron model is presented. The stability is determined by an interplay of electron-shell effects, the Rayleigh instability due to surface tension, and the…
Using concepts from fluid dynamics, a partial differential equation for the shape evolution of a metallic nanowire is derived from a semiclassical energy functional that includes electron-shell effects. A rich dynamics, involving movement…
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…
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…
In this article, we report a theoretical analysis of a nanoelectromechanical shuttle based on a multiscale model that combines microscopic electronic structure data with macroscopic dynamics. The microscopic part utilizes a (static) density…
Metallic nanowires can exhibit fascinating physical properties. These unique properties often originate primarily from the quantum confinement of free electrons in a potential well, while electron-electron interactions do not play a…
Although the two-dimensional model of random networks of metallic nanowires or carbon nanotubes is widely used, it significantly overestimates the number of contacts between elements compared to quasi-three-dimensional models. This, within…
We develop a generalized grand canonical potential for the ballistic nonequilibrium electron distribution in a metal nanowire with a finite applied bias voltage. Coulomb interactions are treated in the self-consistent Hartree approximation,…
The formation of gold nanowires in vacuum at room temperature reveals a periodic spectrum of exceptionally stable diameters. This is identified as shell structure similar to that which was recently discovered for alkali metals at low…
We have investigated the stability and conductivity of unsupported, two dimensional infinite gold nanowires using ab-initio density functional theory (DFT). Two dimensional ribbon like nanowires, with 1-5 rows of gold atoms in the…
We present a theoretical approach for understanding the stability of simple metal nanowires, in particular monovalent metals such as the alkalis and noble metals. Their cross sections are of order one nanometer so that small perturbations…
We have investigated different geometries of two dimensional (2D) infinite length Ni nanowires of increasing width using spin density functional theory calculations. Our simulations demonstrate that the parallelogram motif is the most…
The cohesion and conductance of a point contact in a two-dimensional metallic nanowire are investigated in an independent-electron model with hard-wall boundary conditions. All properties of the nanowire are related to the Green's function…
Solid cylindrical nanowires are vulnerable to a Rayleigh-Plateau-type morphological instability. The instability results in a wire breakup, followed by formation of a chain array of spherical nanoparticles. In this paper, a base model of a…
A self-consistent analytical solution of the multi-subband Boltzmann transport equation with collision term describing grain boundary and surface roughness scattering is presented to study the resistivity scaling in metal nanowires. The…
The conducting and thermodynamic properties of ballistic metallic nanocontacts with smooth shapes are investigated. All properties are related to the electronic scattering matrix, which is evaluated in the WKB approximation for independent…
Thermally induced conductance jumps of metal nanowires are modeled using stochastic Ginzburg-Landau field theories. Changes in radius are predicted to occur via the nucleation of surface kinks at the wire ends, consistent with recent…