Scientists find why conductance of nanowires vary

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A model of the niobium nanowire with the electrical leads on the outside and the two dimers in the center. At left the dimer is in the center of the leads giving it high electrical conductivity. At right the dimer is not centered giving it lower cond ...
A model of the niobium nanowire with the electrical leads on the outside and the two dimers in the center. At left, the dimer is in the center of the leads, giving it high electrical conductivity. At right, the dimer is not centered, giving it lower conductivity. For the full image click the link below. Credit: Georgia Tech/Uzi Landman

A Georgia Tech physics group has discovered how and why the electrical conductance of metal nanowires changes as their length varies. In a collaborative investigation performed by an experimental team and a theoretical physics team, the group discovered that measured fluctuations in the smallest nanowires' conductance are caused by a pair of atoms, known as a dimer, shuttling back and forth between the bulk electrical leads. Determining the structural properties of nanowires is a big challenge facing the future construction of nanodevices and nanotechnology.


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