The signature of chemical valence in the electrical conduction through a single-atom contact

Elke Scheer (), Nicolás Agraït, Juan Carlos Cuevas, Alfredo Levy Yeyati, Bas Ludoph, Alvaro Martín-Rodero, Gabino Rubio Bollinger, Jan M. van Ruitenbeek and Cristián Urbina
Additional contact information
Elke Scheer: Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA-Saclay
Nicolás Agraït: Instituto Universitario de Ciencia de “Materiales Nicolás Cabrera”
Juan Carlos Cuevas: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Alfredo Levy Yeyati: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Bas Ludoph: Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium, Leiden University
Alvaro Martín-Rodero: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Gabino Rubio Bollinger: Instituto Universitario de Ciencia de “Materiales Nicolás Cabrera”
Jan M. van Ruitenbeek: Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium, Leiden University
Cristián Urbina: Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA-Saclay

Nature, 1998, vol. 394, issue 6689, 154-157

Abstract: Abstract Fabrication of structures at the atomic scale is now possible using state-of-the-art techniques for manipulating individual atoms1, and it may become possible to design electrical circuits atom by atom. A prerequisite for successful design is a knowledge of the relationship between the macroscopic electrical characteristics of such circuits and the quantum properties of the individual atoms used as building blocks. As a first step, we show here that the chemical valence determines the conduction properties of the simplest imaginable circuit—a one-atom contact between two metallic banks. The extended quantum states that carry the current from one bank to the other necessarily proceed through the valence orbitals of the constriction atom. It thus seems reasonable to conjecture that the number of current-carrying modes (or ‘channels’) of a one-atom contact is determined by the number of available valence orbitals, and so should strongly differ for metallic elements in different series of the periodic table. We have tested this conjecture using scanning tunnelling microscopy and mechanically controllable break-junction techniques2,3 to obtain atomic-size constrictions for four different metallic elements (Pb, Al, Nb and Au), covering a broad range of valences and orbital structures. Our results demonstrate unambiguously a direct link between valence orbitals and the number of conduction channels in one-atom contacts.

Date: 1998
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DOI: 10.1038/28112

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