Localization lengths of ultrathin disordered gold and silver nanowires

The localization lengths of ultrathin disordered $\chem{Au}$ and $\chem{Ag}$ nanowires are estimated by calculating the wire conductances as functions of wire lengths. We study $\chem{Ag}$ and $\chem{Au}$ monoatomic linear chains, and thicker $\chem{Ag}$ wires with very small cross-sections. For the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2004-07, Vol.67 (2), p.254-260, Article 254
Main Authors: jr., A. T. Costa, Muniz, R. B, Hong, Jisang, Wu, R. Q
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
73.20.Fz
73.21.Hb
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Summary:The localization lengths of ultrathin disordered $\chem{Au}$ and $\chem{Ag}$ nanowires are estimated by calculating the wire conductances as functions of wire lengths. We study $\chem{Ag}$ and $\chem{Au}$ monoatomic linear chains, and thicker $\chem{Ag}$ wires with very small cross-sections. For the monoatomic chains we consider two types of disorder: bounded random fluctuations of the interatomic distances, and the presence of random substitutional impurities. The effect of impurity atoms on the nanowire conductance is much stronger. Our results show that electrical transport in ultrathin disordered wires may occur in the strong localization regime, and with relatively small amounts of disorder the localization lengths can be very small. The localization length dependence on wire thickness is investigated for $\chem{Ag}$ nanowires with different impurity concentrations.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/epl/i2004-10054-4