Related papers: Electrostatically Assembled Metallic Point Contact…

We study the thermal conductance of ballistic point contacts. These contacts are realized as few nanometer long pillars in so called air-gap heterostructures (AGHs). The pillar length being much smaller that the mean free path of the…

We present results for a model that describes a quantum point contact. We show how electron-electron correlations, within the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation, generate a magnetic moment in the point contact. Having characterized the…

The electronic and transport properties of atomic-size contacts are analyzed theoretically using a self-consistent tight-binding model. Our results show that, for s-like metals, a sufficiently narrow contact exhibits well defined resonant…

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 performed measurements on a quantum dot and a capacitively coupled quantum point contact by using the sharp metallic tip of a low-temperature scanning force microscope as a scanned gate. The quantum point contact served as a detector for…

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 have measured conductance histograms of atomic point contacts made from the noble-transition metal alloys CuNi, AgPd, and AuPt for a concentration ratio of 1:1. For all alloys these histograms at low bias voltage (below 300 mV) resemble…

Here, we employ a numerical approach to investigate the transport and conductance characteristics of a quantum point contact. A quantum point contact is a narrow constriction of a width comparable to the electron wavelength defined in a…

We present a multiscale atomistic-to-continuum method for ionic crystals with defects. Defects often play a central role in ionic and electronic solids, not only to limit reliability, but more importantly to enable the functionalities that…

We study theoretically quantum transport through laser-irradiated metallic atomic-sized contacts. The radiation field is treated classically, assuming its effect to be the generation of an ac voltage over the contact. We derive an…

Two-dimensional atomic crystals (2DACs) can be mechanically assembled with precision for the fabrication of heterostructures, allowing for the combination of material building blocks with great flexibility. In addition, while conventional…

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…

A theoretical approach was developed for an exact numerical description of a pair of ultracold atoms interacting via a central potential that are trapped in a three-dimensional optical lattice. The coupling of center-of-mass and…

The electronic properties of interfaces between two different solids can differ strikingly from those of the constituent materials. For instance, metallic conductivity, and even superconductivity, have been recently discovered at interfaces…

We report a new technique for fabricating metallic electrodes on insulating substrates with separations on the 1 nm scale. The fabrication technique, which combines lithographic and electrochemical methods, provides atomic resolution…

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…

We describe a technique that enables a strong, coherent coupling between isolated neutral atoms and mesoscopic conductors. The coupling is achieved by exciting atoms trapped above the surface of a superconducting transmission line into…

Using a break junction technique, we find a clear signature for the formation of conducting hybrid junctions composed of a single organic molecule (benzene, naphthalene or anthracene) connected to chains of platinum atoms. The hybrid…

We calculate the conductance of a ballistic point contact to a superconducting wire, produced by the s-wave proximity effect in a semiconductor with spin-orbit coupling in a parallel magnetic field. The conductance G as a function of…

Atomic-sized junctions of iron, created by controlled rupture, present unusually high values of conductance compared to other metals. This result is counter-intuitive since, at the nanoscale, body-centered cubic metals are expected to…