Scientists discover new way to study nanostructures

Atomic-scale mechanical motions in nanowires can be excited by high-frequency alternating superconducting Josephson currents. In niobium dimer nanowires three vibrational modes were experimentally observed and identified through first-principles theoretical calculations. At top is a curve of the measured conductance plotted versus applied voltage showing a sequence of peaks corresponding to vibrational modes of the dimer of niobium atoms suspended between the left and right tip-electrodes, as depicted in the atomic configuration shown in the middle. Credit: Georgia Tech/Alexei Marchenkov/Uzi Landman