AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Thursday Sessions
       Session NS-ThP

Paper NS-ThP13
Conductance Plateau Length of Au Single-Atom Contacts

Thursday, November 16, 2006, 5:30 pm, Room 3rd Floor Lobby

Session: Nanoscale Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: A. Sakai, Kyoto University, Japan
Authors: R. Suzuki, Kyoto University, Japan
S. Kurokawa, Kyoto University, Japan
A. Sakai, Kyoto University, Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
We have measured the length distribution of 1G@sub 0@ (G@sub 0@ is the quantum unit of conductance) plateaus of Au single-atom contacts in UHV at room temperature. It is found that the distribution has a slowly decaying tail and can be well fitted by a power-law behavior. The exponent little depends on the bias and takes a value close to -1. Thus, the 1G0 plateau length, which is the lifetime of Au single-atom contacts, obeys the so-called Zip's law. We also found that the average plateau length decreases with increasing the bias but increases when measured in air. Probably, gas adsorptions on Au single-atom contacts in air act to improve their stability.