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Science 24 March 1995:
Vol. 267. no. 5205, pp. 1793 - 1795
DOI: 10.1126/science.267.5205.1793
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Articles

Properties of Metallic Nanowires: From Conductance Quantization to Localization

J. I. Pascual 1, J. Méndez 1, J. Gómez-Herrero 1, A. M. Baró 1, N. Garcia 2, Uzi Landman 3, W. D. Luedtke 3, E. N. Bogachek 3, and H. -P. Cheng 3

1 Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid, Spain
2 Fisica de Sistemas Pequeños, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientisieas, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid, Spain
3 School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.

Material structures of reduced dimensions exhibit electrical and mechanical properties different from those in the bulk. Measurements of room-temperature electronic transport in pulled metallic nanowires are presented, demonstrating that the conductance characteristics depend on the length, lateral dimensions, state and degree of disorder, and elongation mechanism of the wire. Conductance during the elongation of short wires (length l sim 50 angstroms) exhibits periodic quantization steps with characteristic dips, correlating with the order-disorder states of layers of atoms in the wire predicted by molecular dynamics simulations. The resistance R of wires as long as l sim 400 angstroms exhibits localization characteristics with In R(l) sim l2.

Submitted on October 25, 1994
Accepted on February 2, 1995


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