Quantum interference structures in the conductance plateaus of gold nanojunctions

Abstract

The conductance of breaking metallic nanojunctions shows plateaus alternated with sudden jumps, corresponding to the stretching of stable atomic configurations and atomic rearrangements, respectively. We investigate the structure of the conductance plateaus both by measuring the voltage dependence of the plateaus' slope on individual junctions and by a detailed statistical analysis on a large amount of contacts. Though the atomic discreteness of the junction plays a fundamental role in the evolution of the conductance, we find that the fine structure of the conductance plateaus is determined by quantum interference phenomenon to a great extent.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum properties of atomic-sized conductors
• Formation and manipulation of a metallic wire of single gold atoms
• Conductance fluctuations as a tool for investigating the quantum modes in atomic size metallic contacts
• Evidence for saturation of channel transmission from conductance fluctuations in atomic-size point contacts
• Single-channel transmission in gold one-atom contacts and chains

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Quantum Interference in Single Molecule Electronic Systems
• Method to determine defect positions below a metal surface by STM
• Signature of Fermi surface anisotropy in point contact conductance in the presence of defects
• Pulling Platinum Atomic Chains by Carbon Monoxide Molecules
• Magneto-quantum oscillations of the conductance of a tunnel point-contact in the presence of a single defect
• Non-universal behavior of the parity effect in monovalent atomic wires
• Alternative types of molecule-decorated atomic chains in Au-CO-Au single-molecule junctions