title: Fractional conductance in hydrogen-embedded gold nanowires.
abstract: Interaction of the physically adsorbed molecular hydrogen with a breaking gold nanowire results in additional stable atomic configurations in few atom contacts and appearance of fractional peaks in the conductance histogram. This effect is explained by peculiar dynamic evolution of the hydrogen-embedded nanoconstriction due to competition between tensile and capillary forces. Dimerization within the atomic wire and hydrogen-assisted stabilization of gold dimers results in preferable atomic arrangements with conductivity close to 0.5 and 1.5 of quantum conductance unit G(0)=2e(2)/h.
authors.affiliation: Electron Transport Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1111 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Sz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Csonka
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halbritter
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mihály
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jurdik
authors.forename: O I
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Shklyarevskii
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Speller
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Kempen