Related papers: The Puzzling Stability of Monatomic Gold Wires
Using first principles density functional calculations, gold monatomic wires are found to exhibit a zigzag shape which remains under tension, becoming linear just before breaking. At room temperature they are found to spin, what explains…
It has been shown in recent experiments that electronic transport through a gold monatomic nanowire is dissipative above a threshold voltage due to excitation of phonons via the electron-phonon interaction. We address that data by…
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 surface dynamics and thermodynamics of metal nanowires are investigated in a continuum model. Competition between surface tension and electron-shell effects leads to a rich stability diagram, with fingers of stability extending to…
The unusual structural stability of gold nanowires at large separations of gold atoms is explained from first-principles quantum mechanical calculations. We show that undetected light atoms, in particular hydrogen, stabilize the…
Finite gold nanowires containing less than 1000 atoms are studied using the molecular dynamics simulation method and embedded atom potential. Nanowires with the face-centered cubic structure and the (111) oriented cross-section are prepared…
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…
Recent experiments showed that the last, single channel conductance step in monatomic gold contacts exhibits significant fluctuations as a function of stretching. From simulations of a stretched gold nanowire linked to deformable tips, we…
The stability and electronic structure of a single monatomic Al wire has been studied using the ab initio pseudopotential method. The Al wire undergoes two structural rearrangements under compression, i.e., zigzag configurations at angles…
Nanowires of different nature have been shown to self-assemble as a function of stress at the contact between two macroscopic metallic leads. Here we demonstrate for gold wires that the balance between various metastable nanowire…
Transmission electron microscopy experiments have recently observed gold metal nanocylinders to thin down in a discrete manner: A kink--a step of order of one atomic layer--nucleates at one end and then moves along the wire, leaving a…
Structural transformations, electronic spectra and ballistic transport in pulled gold nanowires are investigated with ab initio simulations, and correlated with recent measurements. Strain-induced yield of an initial double-strand wire…
The current miniaturization of electronic devices raises many questions about the properties of various materials at nanometre-scales. Recent molecular dynamics computer simulations have shown that small finite nanowires of gold exist as…
We demonstrate a theoretical analysis concerning the geometrical structures and electrical conduction of infinite monatomic gold and aluminum wires in the process of their elongation, based on first-principles molecular-dynamics simulations…
Equilibrium structure, local densities of states, and electronic transport in a gold nanowire made of a four-atom chain supported by two gold electrodes, which has been imaged recently by high-resolution electron microscopy, and chemical…
The process of creating an atomically defined and robust metallic tip is described and quantified using measurements of contact conductance between gold electrodes and numerical simulations. Our experiments show how the same conductance…
Quantized conductance behavior of gold nano wires was studied under electrochemical potential control. We fabricated 1 nm long mono atomic wires in solution at room temperature. Electrochemical potential significantly affected the stability…
Molecular dynamics calculations revealed that the temperature of operation and the applied tensile force (f) determine not only the kinetics but also the mode and duration of Au nanowire breaking. In the tensile force range of 0.018 and 0.1…
A general linear stability analysis of simple metal nanowires is presented using a continuum approach which correctly accounts for material-specific surface properties and electronic quantum-size effects. The competition between surface…
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…