Four-atom period in the conductance of monatomic Al wires

We present first-principles calculations based on density functional theory for the conductance of monatomic Al wires between Al(111) electrodes. In contrast to the even-odd oscillations observed in other metallic wires, the conductance of the Al wires is found to oscillate with a period of four atoms as the length of the wire is varied. Although local charge neutrality can account for the observed period, it leads to an incorrect phase. We explain the conductance behavior using a resonant transport model based on the electronic structure of the infinite wire.     

Electronic conductance via atomic wires: a phase field matching theory approach

A model is presented for the quantum transport of electrons, across finite atomic wire nanojunctions between electric leads, at zero bias limit. In order to derive the appropriate transmission and reflection spectra, familiar in the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, we develop the algebraic phase field matching theory (PFMT). In particular, we apply our model calculations to determine the electronic conductance for freely suspended monatomic linear sodium wires (MLNaW) between leads of the same element, and for the diatomic copper-cobalt wires (DLCuCoW) between copper leads on a Cu(111) substrate. Calculations for the MLNaW system confirm the correctness and functionality of our PFMT approach. We present novel transmission spectra for this system, and show that its transport properties exhibit the conductance oscillations for the odd- and even-number wires in agreement with previously reported first-principle results. The numerical calculations for the DLCuCoW wire nanojunctions are motivated by the stability of these systems at low temperatures. Our results for the transmission spectra yield for this system, at its Fermi energy, a monotonic exponential decay of the conductance with increasing wire length of the Cu-Co pairs. This is a cumulative effect which is discussed in detail in the present work, and may prove useful for applications in nanocircuits. Furthermore, our PFMT formalism can be considered as a compact and efficient tool for the study of the electronic quantum transport for a wide range of nanomaterial wire systems. It provides a trade-off in computational efficiency and predictive capability as compared to slower first-principle based methods, and has the potential to treat the conductance properties of more complex molecular nanojunctions.     

Numerical Study of Spin-Dependent Transport Through a Magnetic Quantum Wire with Lattice Vacancy

The impact of lattice vacancy on the spin dependent transport properties of a magnetic-quantum wire (MQW) has been investigated. A simple tight binding Hamiltonian to describe the model is used, where the quantum wire is attached to two semi-infinite one-dimensional non-magnetic electrodes. Based on the Landauer–Buttiker formalism all the calculations are performed numerically which describe two-terminal conductance. The results suggest that in presence of vacancy the transmission reduces and vacancy creates quasilocalized states around zero energy (E _f = 0). In order to investigate spin-filtering effect of (MQW), the degree of polarization in the presence and absences of vacancy has been studied. Also it is found that the effect of vacancy decreases when the size of MQW increases. The results show that a magnetic quantum wire can be used as a spin filter. The application of the predicted results may be useful in designing molecular spin-polarized transistors in the future.     

Electron transport in gated InGaAs and InAsP quantum well wires in selectively grown InP ridge structures

The purpose of this work is to fabricate ribbon-like InGaAs and InAsP wires embedded in InP ridge structures and investigate their transport properties. The InP ridge structures that contain the wires are selectively grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) on pre-patterned InP substrates. To optimize the growth and micro-fabrication processes for electronic transport, we explore the Ohmic contact resistance, the electron density, and the mobility as a function of the wire width using standard transport and Shubnikov–de Haas measurements. At low temperatures the ridge structures reveal reproducible mesoscopic conductance fluctuations. We also fabricate ridge structures with submicron gate electrodes that exhibit non-leaky gating and good pinch-off characteristics acceptable for device operation. Using such wrap gate electrodes, we demonstrate that the wires can be split to form quantum dots evidenced by Coulomb blockade oscillations in transport measurements.     

Magnetic anisotropy and anisotropic ballistic conductance of thin magnetic wires

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of thin magnetic wires of iron and cobalt is quite different from the bulk phases. The spin moment of monatomic Fe wire may be as high as 3.4 μ_B, while the orbital moment as high as 0.5 μ_B. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) was calculated for wires up to 0.6 nm in diameter starting from monatomic wire and adding consecutive shells for thicker wires. I observe that Fe wires exhibit the change sign with the stress applied along the wire. It means that easy axis may change from the direction along the wire to perpendicular to the wire. We find that ballistic conductance of the wire depends on the direction of the applied magnetic field, i.e. shows anisotropic ballistic magnetoresistance. This effect occurs due to the symmetry dependence of the splitting of degenerate bands in the applied field which changes the number of bands crossing the Fermi level. We find that the ballistic conductance changes with applied stress. Even for thicker wires the ballistic conductance changes by factor 2 on moderate tensile stain in our 5×4 model wire. Thus, the ballistic conductance of magnetic wires changes in the applied field due to the magnetostriction. This effect can be observed as large anisotropic BMR in the experiment.     

Characteristics of quantum conductance in a quasi-one-dimension quantum wire containing cavity structures

Quantum-mechanical calculations of the conductance for model devices, consisting of dual semi-infinite quantum wires connected in series by a cavity, are carried out with use of the coupled-mode transfer method and mode matching technique. The effects of the mode-mode coupling and geometry-induced scattering on the quantum conductance are in detail studied by varying the geometric structure of the cavity. There are no traces of quantization conductance. The pattern of the conductance displays many peaks and dips. The threshold energy of the first onset of the conductance is lower than the normal value for opening the propagation channel of the lowest subband in the quantum wire. The overall character of the conductance exhibits heavy fluctuations around the classical conductance for the relevant point contact. The fluctuation amplitude is of order of 2e ²/h, similar to universal conductance fluctuations. The oscillatory structure becomes rich and dense as the scale of the cavity increases. There is a global trend for the conductance to rise as the cavity is compressed. The structures of resonant peaks and antiresonance dips in the conductance are originated from the mode coupling among the subbands in the cavity and quantum wires. The heavy conductance fluctuation may be caused by the quantum interference of the electron waves due to the multiple scattering (reflections) of electrons by the cavity boundaries.     

一类弯曲量子线的量子束缚态

对电子在弯曲量子线中的弹道输运性质进行了理论研究.弯曲量子线由T型量子线和单曲量子线组成.该有限长的量子结构分别与两半无限长的量子通道相连,当施加一偏压时,量子通道分别可作为电子的发射极和收集极.计算结果表明,当入射电子的能量小于量子结构横向上的第一个本征模时,电导存在两个峰.进一步指出,这些峰来自于电子共振隧穿量子结构中的量子束缚态.并详尽地讨论了这些量子束缚态的性质. 关键词： 量子束缚态 共振隧穿 电导 量子线     

Conductance of short quantum wires with sharp boundaries

The conductance of short ballistic wires with boundaries, whose curvature radius is comparable to the electron wavelength, is investigated. It is found that, in such wires, no conductance quantization takes place. Instead, pronounced interference effects are observed. These effects are related to the Fabry-Perot interference by the wire edges and with the mesoscopic interference caused by the coherent scattering of electrons by the wire edges and by the impurities located in the near-wire regions of the 2D electron gas.     

Carbon-atom wires: charge-transfer doping, voltage drop, and the effect of distortions

We present first-principles calculations on electrical conduction through carbon atomic wires. The changes in charge distribution induced by a large bias exhibit the primary involvement of the wire's pi states. A significant fraction ( approximately 40%) of the voltage drops across the atomic wire itself. At zero bias, there is a large transfer of charge from the electrodes to the wire, effectively providing doping without introducing scattering centers. This transfer leads, however, to potential barriers at the wire-electrode junctions. Bending the wire reduces its conductance.     

Electronic transport properties of carbon chains between Au and Ag electrodes: A first-principles study

We report first-principles calculations of the current-voltage characteristic and the conductance of carbon-based molecular wires with different length capped with sulfur ends between two metallic electrodes made of different metals. The optimized molecular structure of carbon chain in the junction is presented on the structure of polyyne. The conductance of the polyyne wires shows oscillatory behavior depending on the number of carbon atoms (triple bonds). Current rectification is found and rectification direction presents inversion with the odd and even number of carbon atoms.     

Electron transport in stretched monoatomic gold wires

The conductance of monoatomic gold wires containing 3-7 gold atoms has been obtained from ab initio calculations. The transmission is found to vary significantly depending on the wire stretching and the number of incorporated atoms. Such oscillations are determined by the electronic structure of the one-dimensional (1D) part of the wire between the contacts. Our results indicate that the conductivity of 1D wires can be suppressed without breaking the contact.     

Absorption losses in periodic arrays of thin metallic wires

We analyze the transmission and reflection of electromagnetic waves calculated from transfer matrix simulations of periodic arrangements of thin metallic wires. The effective permittivity and the absorption of the arrangements of wires are determined. Their dependence on the wire thickness and the conductance of the metallic wires is studied. The cutoff frequency, or effective plasma frequency, is obtained and compared with analytical predictions. It is shown that the periodic arrangement of wires exhibits a frequency region in which the real part of the permittivity is negative while its imaginary part is very small. This behavior is seen for wires with thickness as small as 17 microm with a lattice constant of 3.33 mm.     

Electron transport across a quantum wire in the presence of electron leakage to a substrate

We investigate electron transport through a mono-atomic wire which is tunnel coupled to two electrodes and also to the underlying substrate. The setup is modeled by a tight-binding Hamiltonian and can be realized with a scanning tunnel microscope (STM). The transmission of the wire is obtained from the corresponding Green’s function. If the wire is scanned by the contacting STM tip, the conductance as a function of the tip position exhibits oscillations which may change significantly upon increasing the number of wire atoms. Our numerical studies reveal that the conductance depends strongly on whether or not the substrate electrons are localized. As a further ubiquitous feature, we observe the formation of charge oscillations.     

Experimental study of V–I characteristics of wire–plate electrostatic precipitators under clean air conditions

In this paper a laboratory-scale model for prediction of the voltage–current characteristics of wire–plate electrostatic precipitators under clean air conditions is presented and experimentally validated. The model investigates the effect of electrode configurations, wire diameter, spacing between wire electrodes, number of discharge wires and distance between collecting plates that on voltage–current characteristic of wire–plate electrostatic precipitators. Also, this paper presents a simulation model, based on the Finite Difference Method (FDM), to simulate electric conditions of wire–plate electrostatic precipitators under clean air conditions. The experimental results of some models are compared with those obtained from the simulation models.     

Ab initio calculations of transport properties of atomic bridges by the recursion-transfer-matrix method

We present an efficient self-consistent method for approaching quantum transport through atomic-scale structures. Using the recursion-transfer-matrix (RTM) method with a separable form of nonlocal pseudopotentials, scattering waves propagating between metallic electrodes through nano-bridged structures are efficiently calculated on the basis of the density-functional formalism. We performed calculations with this method of the conductance of Al atomic wires with various kinds of single atoms mixed at the contact to one electrode. We found that the transport properties are considerably affected by the bonding nature of the atom at the contact. The conductance is largely determined by the atomic species at the contact and does not change much as the length of the atomic wire increases.     

Quantum conductance through a uniform scatterer in a narrow-wire semiconductor

The quantum conductance for electrons scattering from a uniform scatterer in a narrow-wire semiconductor is calculated. Instead of getting the conductance directly from the calculation of transmission coefficient, we calculate the reflection coefficient instead. The transmission coefficient is then calculated by using the conservation law, T=I−R. This alternative method can avoid the instability of the conductance obtained by including more evanescent modes for a finite-range scatterer in a narrow-wire semiconductor. This method is applied to a semi-infinite strip potential barrier and a rectangular potential barrier in a narrow wire. The quantum stepwise conductance is obtained in both cases. For a repulsive rectangular potential barrier, there are oscillations in each stepwise conductance. For an attractive rectangular potential barrier, there exist multiple quasi-bound states below the sub-band energies which can cause the drop of the quantum conductance. The effect of the continuum quasi-bound states diminishes as the energy of the incident electron increases, but the influence of the discrete quasi-bound states still persists.     

Conductance of short quantum wires with sharp boundaries

The conductance of short ballistic wires with boundaries, whose curvature radius is comparable to the electron wavelength, is investigated. It is found that, in such wires, no conductance quantization takes place. Instead, pronounced interference effects are observed. These effects are related to the Fabry-Perot interference by the wire edges and with the mesoscopic interference caused by the coherent scattering of electrons by the wire edges and by the impurities located in the near-wire regions of the 2D electron gas. Original Russian Text ? D.A. Kozlov, Z.D. Kvon, A.E. Plotnikov, D.V. Shcheglov, A.V. Latyshev, 2007, published in Pis’ma v Zhurnal éksperimental’noĭ i Teoreticheskoĭ Fiziki, 2007, Vol. 86, No. 10, pp. 752–756.     

Characterization of thermal diffusivity of micro/nanoscale wires by transient photo-electro-thermal technique

In this work, a transient photon-electro-thermal (TPET) technique based on step laser heating and electrical thermal sensing is developed to characterize the thermophysical properties of one-dimensional micro/nanoscale conductive and nonconductive wires. In this method, the to-be-measured thin wire/tube is suspended over two electrodes and is irradiated with a step cw laser beam. The laser beam induces a transient temperature rise in the wire/tube, which will lead to a transient change of its electrical resistance. A dc current is applied to the sample, and the resulting transient voltage variation over the wire is measured and used to extract the thermophysical properties of the sample. A 25.4-μm thick Pt wire is used as the reference sample to verify this technique. Sound agreement is obtained between the measured thermal diffusivity and the reference value. Applying the TPET technique, one can measure the thermal diffusivity of conductive single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles and nonconductive cloth fibers. For nonconductive wires, a thin (∼ nm) metallic film is coated on the outside of the wire for electrical thermal sensing. The measured thermal diffusivity for the SWCNT bundle is 2.53×10^-5 m²/s, much less than the thermal diffusivity of graphite in the layer direction. For microscale cloth fibers, our experiment shows its thermal diffusivity is at the level of 10^-7 m²/s. PACS 78.20.Nv; 42.62.-b; 65.80+n; 66.30.Xj     

Unusual conductance of polyyne-based molecular wires

We report a full self-consistent ab initio calculation of the current-voltage curve and the conductance of thiolate capped polyynes in contact with gold electrodes. We find the conductance of polyynes an order of magnitude larger compared with other conjugated oligomers. The reason lies in the position of the Fermi level deep in the highest occupied molecular orbital related resonance. With the conductance weakly dependent on the applied bias and almost independent of the length of the molecular chain, polyynes appear as nearly perfect molecular wires.     

Universal conductance of nanowires near the superconductor-metal quantum transition

We consider wires near a zero temperature transition between superconducting and metallic states. The critical theory obeys hyperscaling, which leads to a universal frequency, temperature, and length dependence of the conductance; quantum and thermal phase slips are contained within this critical theory. Normal, superconducting, and mixed (SN) leads on the wire determine distinct universality classes. For the SN case, wires near the critical point have a universal dc conductance which is independent of the length of the wire at low temperatures.