Stability of Metal Nanowires at Ultrahigh Current Densities
arXiv:cond-mat/0411058 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.71.235404
Abstract
We develop a generalized grand canonical potential for the ballistic nonequilibrium electron distribution in a metal nanowire with a finite applied bias voltage. Coulomb interactions are treated in the self-consistent Hartree approximation, in order to ensure gauge invariance. Using this formalism, we investigate the stability and cohesive properties of metallic nanocylinders at ultrahigh current densities. A linear stability analysis shows that metal nanowires with certain {\em magic conductance values} can support current densities up to 10^11 A/cm^2, which would vaporize a macroscopic piece of metal. This finding is consistent with experimental studies of gold nanowires. Interestingly, our analysis also reveals the existence of reentrant stability zones--geometries that are stable only under an applied bias.
12 pages, 6 figures, version published in PRB
References in corpus (6)
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- Interplay of Rayleigh and Peierls Instabilities in Metallic Nanowires
- Quantum Necking in Stressed Metallic Nanowires
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Cited by in corpus (6)
- On the Stability and Structural Dynamics of Metal Nanowires
- Stability and Symmetry Breaking in Metal Nanowires
- Scaling Theory of the Peierls-CDW in Metal Nanowires
- Front propagation into unstable metal nanowires
- The Nanoscale Free-Electron Model
- Single-particle and Interaction Effects on the Cohesion and Transport and Magnetic Properties of Metal Nanowires at Finite Voltages