Formation and Self-Breaking Mechanism of Stable Atom-Sized Junctions

• DOI: 10.1021/nl073003j
• Publication Date: 2007-12-21T09:01:03Z
• Authors: Makusu Tsutsui; Kohei Shoji; Masateru Taniguchi; Tomoji Kawai
• Keywords: Break junction

The self-breaking mechanism of gold junctions is studied by investigating stability the atom-sized contacts. single atom contact lifetime increases from about 0.02 to 200 s upon decreasing junction stretching speed, while at same time, breaking force diminishes logarithmically. We find that processes involve sufficient atomic rearrangements, which thereby allow complete self-compensation externally introduced strain 0.8 pm/s. present results have important implications on fabrication stable molecule junctions.