Analyzing the Stability of Metal Nanoconductors
A linear stability analysis of metallic nanowires was performed in the free-electron model using quantum chaos techniques. It was found that the classical instability of a long wire under surface tension can be completely suppressed by electronic shell effects, leading to stable cylindrical configurations whose electrical conductance is a magic number 1, 3, 5, 6,... times the quantum of conductance. As a function of temperature and radius, wires which are stable with respect to small perturbations are shaded red in the stability diagram above.
Publications
- F. Kassubek, C. A. Stafford, H. Grabert, and R. E. Goldstein,
Quantum Suppression of the Rayleigh Instability in Nanowires,
Nonlinearity 14, 167 (2001).
- C. A. Stafford, F. Kassubek, and H. Grabert,
Cohesion and Stability of Metal Nanowires: A Quantum Chaos Approach,
Adv. Solid State Phys. 41 , 497-511 (2001).
- C.-H. Zhang, F. Kassubek, and C. A. Stafford,
Surface Fluctuations and the Stability of Metal Nanowires,
Phys. Rev. B 68, 165414 (2003).
- J. Bürki, R. E. Goldstein, and C. A. Stafford,
Quantum Necking in Stressed Metallic Nanowires,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 254501 (2003).
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D. F. Urban, J. Bürki, A. I. Yanson, I. K. Yanson, C. A. Stafford, J. M. van Ruitenbeek, and H. Grabert,
Electronic shell effects and the stability of alkali nanowires,
Solid State Comm. 131, 609-614 (2004).
- D. F. Urban, J. Bürki, C.-H. Zhang, C. A. Stafford, and H. Grabert,
Jahn-Teller Distortions and the Supershell Effect in Metal Nanowires,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 186403 (2004).
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J. Bürki, C. A. Stafford, and D. L. Stein,
Fluctuational Instabilities of Alkali and Noble Metal Nanowires,
in Noise in Complex Systems and Stochastic Dynamics II, edited by Z. Gingl et al. (SPIE Proceedings, 2004), vol. 5471, pp. 367-379. - C.-H. Zhang, J. Bürki, and C. A. Stafford,
Stability of Metal Nanowires at Ultrahigh Current Densities,
cond-mat/0411058.
