title: Correlating structure, conductance, and mechanics of silver atomic-scale contacts.
abstract: We measure simultaneously force and conductance of Ag metal point-contacts under ambient conditions at room temperature. We observe the formation of contacts with a conductance close to 1 G0, the quantum of conductance, which can be attributed to a single-atom contact, similar to those formed by Au. We also find two additional conductance features at ∼0.4 G0 and ∼1.3 G0, which have been previously ascribed to contacts with oxygen contaminations. Here, using a conductance cross-correlation technique, we distinguish three different atomic-scale structural motifs and analyze their rupture forces and stiffness. Our results allow us to assign the ∼0.4 G0 conductance feature to an Ag-O-Ag contact and the ∼1.3 G0 feature to an Ag-Ag single-atom contact with an oxygen atom in parallel. Utilizing complementary information from force and conductance, we thus demonstrate the correlation of conductance with the structural evolution at the atomic scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States.
authors.forename: Sriharsha V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Aradhya
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frei
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halbritter
authors.forename: Latha
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Venkataraman
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008422:Materials Testing; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D010316:Particle Size; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013499:Surface Properties; D013718:Tensile Strength
chemical_list: D012834:Silver