Off-Resonance Conduction Through Atomic Wires

The electrical resistance of wires consisting of either a single xenon atom or two xenon atoms in series was measured and calculated on the basis of an atom-jellium model. Both the measurement and the calculation yielded a resistance of 105 ohms for the single-xenon atom system and 107 ohms for the two-xenon atom system. These resistances greatly exceeded the 12,900-ohm resistance of an ideal one-dimensional conduction channel because conduction through the xenon atoms occurs through the tail of the xenon 6s resonance, which lies far above the Fermi level. This conduction process in an atom-sized system can now be understood in terms of the electronic states of individual atoms.

[1]  D. R. Hamann,et al.  Pseudopotentials that work: From H to Pu , 1982 .

[2]  Quantum Transport in Semiconductor Nanostructures , 2004, cond-mat/0412664.

[3]  D. Hamann,et al.  Norm-Conserving Pseudopotentials , 1979 .

[4]  Lang,et al.  Imaging Xe with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. , 1991, Physical review letters.

[5]  T. C. Green,et al.  Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Colloidal Platinum Nanoparticles , 1996, Science.

[6]  R. Landauer,et al.  Conductance determined by transmission: probes and quantised constriction resistance , 1989 .

[7]  M. Büttiker.  Coherent and sequential tunneling in series barriers , 1988 .

[8]  Rolf Landauer,et al.  Conductance from transmission: common sense points , 1992 .

[9]  Joachim,et al.  Electronic transparence of a single C60 molecule. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[10]  C. Joachim,et al.  The Tip Apex Structure of the Eigler Atomic Switch , 1992 .

[11]  J. Ruitenbeek,et al.  The signature of conductance quantization in metallic point contacts , 1995, Nature.

[12]  N. D. Lang.  Interaction between Closed-Shell Systems and Metal Surfaces , 1981 .

[13]  N. D. Lang.  The Density-Functional Formalism and the Electronic Structure of Metal Surfaces , 1974 .

[14]  J. Gimzewski,et al.  Transition from the tunneling regime to point contact studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. , 1987, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[15]  Laughlin,et al.  Differential conductance in three-dimensional resonant tunneling. , 1987, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[16]  D. Eigler,et al.  Positioning single atoms with a scanning tunnelling microscope , 1990, Nature.

[17]  Williamson,et al.  Quantized conductance of point contacts in a two-dimensional electron gas. , 1988, Physical review letters.

[18]  van Ruitenbeek JM,et al.  Subquantum conductance steps in atom-sized contacts of the semimetal Sb. , 1994, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[19]  Jacobsen,et al.  Quantized conductance in an atom-sized point contact. , 1994, Physical review letters.

[20]  D. Eigler,et al.  An atomic switch realized with the scanning tunnelling microscope , 1991, Nature.

[21]  L. Nd.  Resistance of a one-atom contact in the scanning tunneling microscope. , 1987 .

[22]  Lang,et al.  Resistance of atomic wires. , 1995, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.