Breakdown of ballistic conduction in Single-atom-width gold wires.
Single-atom-width gold wires were produced by stretching gold nanocontacts using piezomanipulation inside a high-resolution transmission electron microscope. The structure of the wires was observed in situ with simultaneous conductance measurements. The conductance of the wires depended on the length; the conductance decreased from 1G0 to 0.1G0 (G0 = 2e2/h, where e is the charge of an electron and h is Planck's constant) as the length increased from 1 atom to 7 atoms. The results show that ballistic conduction breaks down in the wires.
Institute of Materials Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan.
Satoshi
S
Kodama
Tokushi
T
Kizuka