Fractional conductance in hydrogen-embedded gold nanowires

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-embe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2003-03, Vol.90 (11), p.116803-116803, Article 116803
Main Authors: Csonka, Sz, Halbritter, A, Mihály, G, Jurdik, E, Shklyarevskii, O I, Speller, S, van Kempen, H
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.116803