Calibration of the length of a chain of single gold atoms

Abstract

Using a scanning tunneling microscope or mechanically controllable break junctions it has been shown that it is possible to control the formation of a wire made of single gold atoms. In these experiments an interatomic distance between atoms in the chain of ~3.6 Angstrom was reported which is not consistent with recent theoretical calculations. Here, using precise calibration procedures for both techniques, we measure length of the atomic chains. Based on the distance between the peaks observed in the chain length histogram we find the mean value of the inter-atomic distance before chain rupture to be 2.6 +/- 0.2 A . This value agrees with the theoretical calculations for the bond length. The discrepancy with the previous experimental measurements was due to the presence of He gas, that was used to promote the thermal contact, and which affects the value of the work function that is commonly used to calibrate distances in scanning tunnelling microscopy and mechanically controllable break junctions at low temperatures.

6 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Mechanical properties and formation mechanisms of a wire of single gold atoms
• Common Origin for Surface Reconstruction and the Formation of Chains of Metal Atoms

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Quantum properties of atomic-sized conductors
• Inelastic transport theory from first-principles: methodology and applications for nanoscale devices
• Observation of a parity oscillation in the conductance of atomic wires
• Electron-vibration interaction in transport through atomic gold wires
• Oxygen enhanced atomic chain formation
• High-bias stability of monatomic chains
• Formation of a Metallic Contact: Jump to Contact Revisited
• Single atom adhesion in optimized gold nanojunctions
• Oxygen clamps in gold nanowires
• Kondo effect and conductance of nanocontacts with magnetic impurities
• Formation and properties of metal-oxygen atomic chains
• Shot noise and magnetism of Pt atomic chains: accumulation of points at the boundary
• Charge Transport through Conjugated Azomethine-based Single Molecules for Optoelectronic Applications
• The molecular signature of highly conductive metal-molecule-metal junctions
• Influence of relativistic effects on the contact formation of transition metals
• Voltage-controlled binary conductance switching in gold-4,4'-bipyridine-gold single-molecule nanowires
• Molecule-assisted ferromagnetic atomic chain formation
• Probing Metal-Molecule Contact at the Atomic Scale via Conductance Jump
• Enabling Ab-Initio Molecular Dynamics under Bias: The CP2K+SMEAGOL Interface for Integrating Density Functional Theory and Non-Equilibrium Green Functions
• Temporal correlations and structural memory effects in break junction measurements
• Alternative types of molecule-decorated atomic chains in Au-CO-Au single-molecule junctions
• Resonant transport in a highly conducting single molecular junction via metal-metal covalent bond
• An experimental set up to probe the quantum transport through single atomic/molecular junction at room temperature
• Understanding the Electronic Transport Through Single Noble Gas Atoms
• Surprising lack of magnetism in the conductance channels of Pt atomic chains
• Exploring Three-Atom-Thick Gold Structures as a Benchmark for Atomic-Scale Calibration of Break-Junction Systems