Related papers: Channel saturation and conductance quantization in…
Previously, the authors reported direct evidence of channel saturation and conductance quantization in atomic-sized gold constrictions through mechanical perturbation studies, and also showed that peaks in conductance histograms are…
Experimental conductance histograms built from several thousand successive breakings of sodium nanowires exhibit peaks up to rather high conductance values (100 x 2e^2/h). In this paper, we present results from a disordered free-electron…
Understanding the properties of electronic transport across metal-molecule interfaces is of central importance for controlling a large variety of molecular-based devices such as organic light emitting diodes, nanoscale organic spin-valves…
We induce superconductivity by proximity effect in thin layers of gold and study the number of conduction channels which contribute to the current in one-atom contacts and atomic wires. The atomic contacts and wires are fabricated with a…
The conductance of atomic size contacts has a small, random, voltage dependent component analogous to conductance fluctuations observed in diffusive wires (UCF). A new effect is observed in gold contacts, consisting of a marked suppression…
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…
The conductance of a single-atom contact is sensitive to the coupling of this contact atom to the atoms in the leads. Notably for the transition metals this gives rise to a considerable spread in the observed conductance values. The mean…
Recently it has been observed that the conductance fluctuations of atomic size gold contacts are suppressed when the conductance is equal to an integer multiple of the conductance quantum. The fact that these contacts tend to consist…
It is known that the conductance of a quantum point contact is quantized in units of $2e^2/h$ and this quantization is destroyed by a non-adiabatic scatterer in the point contact, due to backscattering. Recently, it was shown [Phys. Rev.…
Many experiments have shown that the conductance histograms of metallic atomic-sized contacts exhibit a peak structure, which is characteristic of the corresponding material. The origin of these peaks still remains as an open problem. In…
In transport experiments the quantum nature of matter becomes directly evident when changes in conductance occur only in discrete steps, with a size determined solely by Planck's constant h. The observations of quantized steps in the…
We present a theoretical study of the transport characteristics of molecular junctions, where first-row diatomic molecules are attached to (001) gold and platinum electrodes. We find that the conductance of all of these junctions is of the…
A new form of gold nanobridges has been recently observed in ultrahigh-vacuum experiments, where the gold atoms rearrange to build helical nanotubes, akin in some respects to carbon nanotubes. The good reproducibility of these wires and…
Recent experiments on atomic-scale metallic contacts have shown that the quantization of the conductance appears clearly only after the average of the experimental results. Motivated by these results we have analyzed a simplified model…
A comprehensive review is presented of single molecule junction conductance measurements across families of molecules measured while breaking a gold point contact in a solution of molecules with amine end groups. A theoretical framework…
To develop next-generation electronics and high efficiency energy-harvesting devices, it is crucial to understand how charge and heat are transported at the nanoscale. Metallic atomic-size contacts are ideal systems to probe the quantum…
Electron transport through a quantum dot coupled to superconducting leads shows a sharp conductance onset when a quantum dot orbital level crosses the superconducting coherence peak of one lead. We study superconducting single electron…
In this paper the influence of adsorbed hydrogen on the behavior of gold nanojunctions is investigated. It is found, that the hydrogen environment has a strong effect on the conductance of atomic-sized gold junctions, which is markedly…
Transistors, regardless of their size, rely on electrical gates to control the conductance between source and drain contacts. In atomic-scale transistors, this conductance is exquisitely sensitive to single electrons hopping via individual…
Using first principles simulations we perform a detailed study of the structural, electronic and transport properties of monoatomic platinum chains, sandwiched between platinum electrodes. First we demonstrate that the most stable atomic…