164 research outputs found
Observation of electronic and atomic shell effects in gold nanowires
The formation of gold nanowires in vacuum at room temperature reveals a
periodic spectrum of exceptionally stable diameters. This is identified as
shell structure similar to that which was recently discovered for alkali metals
at low temperatures. The gold nanowires present two competing `magic' series of
stable diameters, one governed by electronic structure and the other by the
atomic packing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Shot noise in parallel wires
We report first-principles calculations of shot noise properties of parallel
carbon wires in the regime in which the interwire distance is much smaller than
the inelastic mean free path. We find that, with increasing interwire distance,
the current approaches rapidly a value close to twice the current of each wire,
while the Fano factor, for the same distances, is still larger than the Fano
factor of a single wire. This enhanced Fano factor is the signature of the
correlation between electron waves traveling along the two different wires. In
addition, we find that the Fano factor is very sensitive to bonding between the
wires, and can vary by orders of magnitudes by changing the interwire spacing
by less than 0.5 \AA. While these findings confirm that shot noise is a very
sensitive tool to probe electron transport properties in nanoscale conductors,
they also suggest that a considerable experimental control of these structures
is required to employ them in electronics.Comment: 5 figure
Observation of a parity oscillation in the conductance of atomic wires
Using a scanning tunnel microscope or mechanically controlled break
junctions, atomic contacts of Au, Pt and Ir are pulled to form chains of atoms.
We have recorded traces of conductance during the pulling process and averaged
these for a large amount of contacts. An oscillatory evolution of conductance
is observed during the formation of the monoatomic chain suggesting a
dependence on even or odd numbers of atoms forming the chain. This behaviour is
not only present in the monovalent metal Au, as it has been previously
predicted, but is also found in the other metals which form chains suggesting
it to be a universal feature of atomic wires
The nature of unmeasured anions in critically ill patients
Contains fulltext :
70719.pdf ( ) (Open Access
Landau diamagnetism and magnetization of interacting diffusive conductors
We show how the orbital magnetization of an interacting disordered diffusive
electron gas can be simply related to the magnetization of the non-interacting
system having the same geometry. This result is applied to the persistent
current of a mesoscopic ring and to the relation between Landau diamagnetism
and the interaction correction to the magnetization of diffusive systems. The
field dependence of this interaction contribution can be deduced directly from
the de Haas-van Alphen oscillations of the free electron gas. Known results for
the free orbital magnetism of finite systems can be used to derive the
interaction contribution in the diffusive regime in various geometries.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Conductance of a tunnel point-contact of noble metals in the presence of a single defect
In paper [1] (Avotina et al. Phys. Rev. B,74, 085411 (2006)) the effect of
Fermi surface anisotropy to the conductance of a tunnel point contact, in the
vicinity of which a single point-like defect is situated, has been investigated
theoretically. The oscillatory dependence of the conductance on the distance
between the contact and the defect has been found for a general Fermi surface
geometry. In this paper we apply the method developed in [1] to the calculation
of the conductance of noble metal contacts. An original algorithm, which
enables the computation of the conductance for any parametrically given Fermi
surface, is proposed. On this basis a pattern of the conductance oscillations,
which can be observed by the method of scanning tunneling microscopy, is
obtained for different orientations of the surface for the noble metals.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Theory of oscillations in the STM conductance resulting from subsurface defects (Review Article)
In this review we present recent theoretical results concerning
investigations of single subsurface defects by means of a scanning tunneling
microscope (STM). These investigations are based on the effect of quantum
interference between the electron partial waves that are directly transmitted
through the contact and the partial waves scattered by the defect. In
particular, we have shown the possibility imaging the defect position below a
metal surface by means of STM. Different types of subsurface defects have been
discussed: point-like magnetic and non-magnetic defects, magnetic clusters in a
nonmagnetic host metal, and non-magnetic defects in a s-wave superconductor.
The effect of Fermi surface anisotropy has been analyzed. Also, results of
investigations of the effect of a strong magnetic field to the STM conductance
of a tunnel point contact in the presence of a single defect has been
presented.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figuers Submitted to Low. Temp. Phy
Evidence for saturation of channel transmission from conductance fluctuations in atomic-size point contacts
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 of these fluctuations when the conductance of the contact is close
to integer multiples of the conductance quantum. Using a model based on the
Landauer-Buettiker formalism we interpret this effect as evidence that the
conductance tends to be built up from fully transmitted (i.e., saturated)
channels plus a single, which is partially transmitted.Comment: An error in Eq.(2) was corrected, where a square root was added to
the factor (1-cos(gamma)). This results in a revised estimate for the mean
free path of 5 nm, which is now fully consistent with the estimates from the
series resistance and the thermopowe
Electronic and optical properties of electromigrated molecular junctions
Electromigrated nanoscale junctions have proven very useful for studying
electronic transport at the single-molecule scale. However, confirming that
conduction is through precisely the molecule of interest and not some
contaminant or metal nanoparticle has remained a persistent challenge,
typically requiring a statistical analysis of many devices. We review how
transport mechanisms in both purely electronic and optical measurements can be
used to infer information about the nanoscale junction configuration. The
electronic response to optical excitation is particularly revealing. We briefly
discuss surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy on such junctions, and present new
results showing that currents due to optical rectification can provide a means
of estimating the local electric field at the junction due to illumination.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, invited paper for forthcoming special issue of
Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. For other related papers, see
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~natelson/publications.htm
- …