Related papers: Quantum properties of atomic-sized conductors
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 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…
We review our experiments on the electronic transport properties of atomic contacts between metallic electrodes, in particular superconducting ones. Despite ignorance of the exact atomic configuration, these ultimate quantum point contacts…
Metal nanowires exhibit a number of interesting properties: their electrical conductance is quantized, their shot-noise is suppressed by the Pauli principle, and they are remarkably strong and stable. We show that many of these properties…
Short length quantum wires (quantum contacts) exhibit a conductance structure at the value of conductance close to 0.7 \times 2e^2/h. The structure is also called the conductance anomaly. In longer contacts the structure evolves to the…
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…
We have analyzed the atomic arrangements and quantum conductance of silver nanowires generated by mechanical elongation. The surface properties of Ag induce unexpected structural properties, as for example, predominance of high aspect ratio…
We report low-temperature transport experiments on single-wall nanotubes with metallic leads of varying contact quality, ranging from weak tunneling to almost perfect transmission. In the weak tunneling regime, where Coulomb blockade…
A remarkably quantitative understanding of the electrical and mechanical properties of metal wires with a thickness on the scale of a nanometer has been obtained within the free-electron model using semiclassical techniques. Convergent…
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…
Atomic quantum point contacts accommodate a small number of conduction channels. Their number N and transmission coefficients {T_n} can be determined by analyzing the subgap structure due to multiple Andreev reflections in the…
The conductance through a quantum point contact created by a sharp and hard metal tip on the graphite surface has features which to our knowledge have not been encountered so far in metal contacts or in nanowires. In this paper we first…
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…
Atomic contacts made of ferromagnetic metals present zero-bias anomalies in the differential conductance due to the Kondo effect. These systems provide a unique opportunity to perform a statistical analysis of the Kondo parameters in…
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…
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…
Poor screening of the long-range Coulomb interaction in one-dimensional carbon nanotubes results in a peculiar picture of contact phenomena. Being brought to a contact with a metal, conducting nanotube accumulates electric charge whose…
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…
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…
As the dimensions of a conductor approach the nano-scale, quantum effects will begin to dominate its behavior. This entails the exciting possibility of controlling the conductance of a device by direct manipulation of the electron wave…