Electric conductance of metal nanowires at mechanically controllable break junctions under electrochemical potential control

We have developed the mechanically controllable break junction setup with an electrochemical cell (EC-MCBJ) to measure the electric conductance of metal nanowires under electrochemical potential control. The electric conductance of Au nanowires was investigated in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ solution using EC-MCBJ. The conductance of the Au nanowires was quantized in units of G₀ (=2e²/h), showing clear features in the conductance histogram. The atomic contact with a specific conductance value was kept for >5 s, indicating the relatively high stability of the present EC-MCBJ system.