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Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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TT: Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 26: Transport - Poster Session

TT 26.29: Poster

Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 14:30–18:30, P1

Structure and conductance histogram of atomic-sized Au contacts — •Markus Dreher1, Fabian Pauly2, Jan Heurich2, Carlos Cuevas2,3, Elke Scheer1, and Peter Nielaba11Physics Department, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany — 2Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, University of Karlsruhe,76128 Karlsruhe, Germany — 3Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Nanotechnologie, 76021 Karlsruhe

Many experiments have shown that the conductance histograms of metallic atomic-sized contacts exhibit a peak structure, which is characteristic for the corresponding material. The origin of these peaks still remains as an open problem. In order to shed some light on this issue, we present a theoretical analysis of the conductance histograms of Au atomic contacts. We have combined classical molecular dynamics simulations of the breaking of nanocontacts with conductance calculations based on a tight-binding model. This combination gives us access to crucial information such as contact geometries, forces, minimum cross section, total conductance and transmission coefficients of the individual conduction channels.

The ensemble of our results suggests that the low temperature Au conductance histograms are a consequence of a subtle interplay between mechanical and electrical properties of these nanocontacts. At variance with other suggestions in the literature, our results indicate that the Au conductance histograms are not a simple consequence of conductance quantization or of existence of exceptionally stable radii.

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