181,160 research outputs found
Stability of conductance oscillations in monatomic sodium wires
We study the stability of conductance oscillations in monatomic sodium wires
with respect to structural variations. The geometry, the electronic structure
and the electronic potential of sodium wires suspended between two sodium
electrodes are obtained from self-consistent density functional theory
calculations. The conductance is calculated within the framework of the
Landauer-B\"utttiker formalism, using the mode-matching technique as formulated
recently in a real-space finite-difference scheme [Phys. Rev. B \textbf{70},
195402 (2004)]. We find a regular even-odd conductance oscillation as a
function of the wire length, where wires comprising an odd number of atoms have
a conductance close to the quantum unit , and even-numbered
wires have a lower conductance. The conductance of odd-numbered wires is stable
with respect to geometry changes in the wire or in the contacts between the
wire and the electrodes; the conductance of even-numbered wires is more
sensitive. Geometry changes affect the spacing and widths of the wire
resonances. In the case of odd-numbered wires the transmission is on-resonance,
and hardly affected by the resonance shapes, whereas for even-numbered wires
the transmission is off-resonance and sensitive to the resonance shapes.
Predicting the amplitude of the conductance oscillation requires a
first-principles calculation based upon a realistic structure of the wire and
the leads. A simple tight-binding model is introduced to clarify these results.Comment: 16 pages, 20 figure
Magnetoresistance of atomic-sized contacts: an ab-initio study
The magnetoresistance (MR) effect in metallic atomic-sized contacts is
studied theoretically by means of first-principle electronic structure
calculations. We consider three-atom chains formed from Co, Cu, Si, and Al
atoms suspended between semi-infinite Co leads. We employ the screened
Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's function method for the electronic structure
calculation and evaluate the conductance in the ballistic limit using the
Landauer approach. The conductance through the constrictions reflects the
spin-splitting of the Co bands and causes high MR ratios, up to 50%. The
influence of the structural changes on the conductance is studied by
considering different geometrical arrangements of atoms forming the chains. Our
results show that the conductance through s-like states is robust against
geometrical changes, whereas the transmission is strongly influenced by the
atomic arrangement if p or d states contribute to the current.Comment: Revised version, presentation of results is improved, figure 2 is
splitted to two figure
Femtosecond photonic viral inactivation probed using solid-state nanopores
We report on detection of virus inactivation using femtosecond laser radiation by measuring the
conductance of a solid state nanopore designed for detecting single particles. Conventional methods
of assaying for viral inactivation based on plaque forming assays require 24–48 h for bacterial growth.
Nanopore conductance measurements provide information on morphological changes at a single
virion level.We show that analysis of a time series of nanopore conductance can quantify the detection
of inactivation, requiring only a few minutes from collection to analysis. Morphological changes were
verified by dynamic light scattering. Statistical analysis maximizing the information entropy provides
a measure of the log reduction value. This work provides a rapid method for assaying viral inactivation
with femtosecond lasers using solid-state nanopores.First author draf
Nonlinear conductance of long quantum wires at a conductance plateau transition: Where does the voltage drop?
We calculate the linear and nonlinear conductance of spinless fermions in
clean, long quantum wires where short-ranged interactions lead locally to
equilibration. Close to the quantum phase transition where the conductance
jumps from zero to one conductance quantum, the conductance obtains an
universal form governed by the ratios of temperature, bias voltage and gate
voltage. Asymptotic analytic results are compared to solutions of a Boltzmann
equation which includes the effects of three-particle scattering. Surprisingly,
we find that for long wires the voltage predominantly drops close to one end of
the quantum wire due to a thermoelectric effect.Comment: 4+ pages, 3 figures plus supplementary material (2 pages, 1 figure);
minor changes, references correcte
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