R H M Smit et al 2004 Nanotechnology 15 S472 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/15/7/055
R H M Smit1, C Untiedt2 and J M van Ruitenbeek1
Show affiliationsFor the metals Au, Pt and Ir it is possible to form freely suspended monatomic chains between bulk electrodes. The atomic chains sustain very large current densities, but finally fail at high bias. We investigate the breaking mechanism, that involves current-induced heating of the atomic wires and electromigration forces. We find good agreement of the observations for Au based on models due to Todorov and co-workers. The high-bias breaking of atomic chains for Pt can also be described by the models, although here the parameters have not been obtained independently. In the limit of long chains the breaking voltage decreases inversely proportional to the length.
65.80.+n Thermal properties of small particles, nanocrystals, nanotubes
63.22.-m Phonons or vibrational states in low-dimensional structures and nanoscale materials
Issue 7 (July 2004)
Received 19 November 2003
Published 17 May 2004
R H M Smit et al 2004 Nanotechnology 15 S472
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