Related papers: Au nanowire junction breakup through surface atom …
Applying ac voltages, we trapped gold nanoparticles between microfabricated electrodes under well-defined conditions. We demonstrate that the nanoparticles can be controllably fused together to form homogeneous gold nanowires with…
We perform a large-scale statistical analysis (> 2000 independent simulations) of the elongation and rupture of gold nanowires, probing the validity and scope of the recently proposed ductile-to-brittle transition that occurs with…
We investigate the formation of nanogaps in gold wires due to electromigration. We show that the breaking process will not start until a local temperature of typically 400 K is reached by Joule heating. This value is rather independent of…
Surface melting temperature is well-known significantly lower than the bulk melting point. But we find that the interior melting temperature in ultrathin nanowires is lower than that of the surface melting . The thermal stability of helical…
Pairs of electrodes with nanometer separation (nano-gap) are achieved through an electromigration-induced break-junction (EIBJ) technique at room temperature. Lithographically defined gold (Au) wires are formed by e-beam evaporation over…
We demonstrate that highly-ordered two-dimensional crystals of ligand-capped gold nanoparticles display a local photo-mechanical stiffness as high as that of solids such as graphite. In out-of equilibrium electron diffraction experiments, a…
With ZnTe as an example, we use two different methods to unravel the characteristics of the growth of nanowires by gold-catalyzed molecular beam epitaxy at low temperature. In the first approach, CdTe insertions have been used as markers,…
We describe a simple model for the melting and optical properties of a DNA/gold nanoparticle aggregate. The optical properties at fixed wavelength change dramatically at the melting transition, which is found to be higher and narrower in…
The simulation and analysis of the thermal stability of nanoparticles, a stepping stone towards their application in technological devices, require fast and accurate force fields, in conjunction with effective characterisation methods. In…
On-chip nanophotonics serves as the foundation for the new generation of information technology, but it is challenged by the diffraction limit of light. With the capabilities of confining light into (deep) subwavelength volumes, plasmonics…
Combined gold and silicon nano-system has spurred tremendous interest in the scientific community due to its application in different metal-semiconductor electronic devices and solar driven water splitting cells. Silicon, fabricated on gold…
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…
Atomistic simulations are performed to study the statistical mechanical property of gold nanoparticles. It is demonstrated that the yielding behavior of gold nanoparticles is governed by dislocation nucleation around surface steps. Since…
After making a cold weld by pressing two clean metal surfaces together, upon gradually separating the two pieces a metallic nanowire is formed, which progressively thins down to a single atom before contact is lost. In previous experiments…
The breakup pathway of Rayleigh fission of a charged drop is unequivocally demonstrated by first of its kind, continuous, high-speed imaging of a drop levitated in an AC quadrupole trap. The experimental observations consistently exhibited…
As circuitry approaches single nanometer length scales, it is important to predict the stability of metals at these scales. The behavior of metals at larger scales can be predicted based on the behavior of dislocations, but it is unclear if…
A large measured 2D diffusion coefficient of gold nanoclusters on graphite has been known experimentally and theoretically for about a decade. When subjected to a lateral force, these clusters should slide with an amount of friction that…
We present the electrical transport characteristics of a batch of nano-crystalline diamond films of varying nitrogen concentrations and explain the conduction mechanism by the disordered quasi-superlattice model applied to semiconductor…
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…
Graphene-metal nanoparticle hybrid materials potentially display not only the unique properties of metal nanoparticles and those of graphene, but also additional novel properties due to the interaction between graphene and nanoparticles.…