title: Atomic-size oscillations in conductance histograms for gold nanowires and the influence of work hardening.
abstract: Nanowires of different natures have been shown to self-assemble as a function of stress at the contact between two macroscopic metallic leads. Here we demonstrate for Au wires that the balance between various metastable nanowire configurations is influenced by the microstructure of the starting materials, and we discover a new set of periodic structures, which we interpret as due to the atomic discreteness of the contact size for the three principal crystal orientations.
authors.affiliation: B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics & Engineering, 47 Lenin Avenue, 61103, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
authors.forename: I K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Yanson
authors.forename: O I
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Shklyarevskii
authors.forename: Sz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Csonka
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Kempen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Speller
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Yanson
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: van Ruitenbeek