arXiv subjects

J. M. van Ruitenbeek

Publications and source records attributed to J. M. van Ruitenbeek.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Lithographic mechanical break junctions for single-molecule measurements in vacuum: possibilities and limitations

We have investigated electrical transport through the molecular model systems benzenedithiol, benzenediamine, hexanedithiol and hexanediamine. Conductance histograms under different experimental conditions indicate that measurements using mechanically controllable break junctions in vacuum are limited by the surface density of molecules at the contact. Hexanedithiol histograms typically exhibit a broad peak around 7 * 10^{-4} G_0. In contrast to recent results on STM-based break junctions in solution we find that the spread in single-molecule conductance is not reduced by amino anchoring groups. Histograms of hexanediamine exhibit a very wide peak around 4 * 10^{-4} G_0. For both benzenedithiol and benzenediamine we observe a large variability in low-bias conductance. We attribute these features to the slow breaking of the lithographic mechanically controllable break junctions and the absence of a solvent that may enable molecular readsorption after bond breaking. Nevertheless, we have been able to acquire reproducible current-voltage characteristics of benzenediamine and benzenedithiol using a statistical measurement approach. Benzenedithiol measurements yield a conductance gap of about 0.9 V at room temperature and 0.6 V at 77 K. In contrast, the current-voltage characteristics of benzenediamine-junctions typically display conductance gaps of about 0.9 V at both temperatures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Highly conductive molecular junctions based on direct binding of benzene to platinum electrodes

Highly conductive molecular junctions were formed by direct binding of benzene molecules between two Pt electrodes. Measurements of conductance, isotopic shift in inelastic spectroscopy and shot noise compared with calculations provide indications for a stable molecular junction where the benzene molecule is preserved intact and bonded to the Pt leads via carbon atoms. The junction has a conductance comparable to that for metallic atomic junctions (around 0.1-1 Go), where the conductance and the number of transmission channels are controlled by the molecule's orientation at different inter-electrode distances.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

The signature of subsurface Kondo impurities in the local tunnel current

The conductance of a tunnel point-contact in an STM-like geometry having a single defect placed below the surface is investigated theoretically. The effect of multiple electron scattering by the defect after reflections by the metal surface is taken into account. In the approximation of s-wave scattering the dependence of the conductance on the applied voltage and the position of the defect is obtained. The results are illustrated for a model s-wave phase shift describing Kondo-resonance scattering. We demonstrate that multiple electron scattering by the magnetic impurity plays a decisive role in the point-contact conductance at voltages near the Kondo resonance. We find that the sign and shape of the Kondo anomaly depends on the position of the defect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Mechanical properties of Pt monatomic chains

The mechanical properties of platinum monatomic chains were investigated by simultaneous measurement of an effective stiffness and the conductance using our newly developed mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) technique with a tuning fork as a force sensor. When stretching a monatomic contact (two-atom chain), the stiffness and conductance increases at the early stage of stretching and then decreases just before breaking, which is attributed to a transition of the chain configuration and bond weakening. A statistical analysis was made to investigate the mechanical properties of monatomic chains. The average stiffness shows minima at the peak positions of the length-histogram. From this result we conclude that the peaks in the length-histogram are a measure of the number of atoms in the chains, and that the chains break from a strained state. Additionally, we find that the smaller the initial stiffness of the chain is, the longer the chain becomes. This shows that softer chains can be stretched longer.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Electron-vibration interaction in single-molecule junctions: from contact to tunneling regime

Point contact spectroscopy on a H2O molecule bridging Pt electrodes reveals a clear crossover between enhancement and reduction of the conductance due to electron-vibration interaction. As single channel models predict such a crossover at transmission probability of t=0.5, we used shot noise measurements to analyze the transmission and observed at least two channels across the junction where the dominant channel has t=0.51+/-0.01 transmission probability at the crossover conductance, which is consistent with the predictions for single-channel models.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Conductance of a tunnel point-contact of noble metals in the presence of a single defect

In paper [1] (Avotina et al. Phys. Rev. B,74, 085411 (2006)) the effect of Fermi surface anisotropy to the conductance of a tunnel point contact, in the vicinity of which a single point-like defect is situated, has been investigated theoretically. The oscillatory dependence of the conductance on the distance between the contact and the defect has been found for a general Fermi surface geometry. In this paper we apply the method developed in [1] to the calculation of the conductance of noble metal contacts. An original algorithm, which enables the computation of the conductance for any parametrically given Fermi surface, is proposed. On this basis a pattern of the conductance oscillations, which can be observed by the method of scanning tunneling microscopy, is obtained for different orientations of the surface for the noble metals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Formation and properties of metal-oxygen atomic chains

Suspended chains consisting of single noble metal and oxygen atoms have been formed. We provide evidence that oxygen can react with and be incorporated into metallic one-dimensional atomic chains. Oxygen incorporation reinforces the linear bonds in the chain, which facilitates the creation of longer atomic chains. The mechanical and electrical properties of these diatomic chains have been investigated by determining local vibration modes of the chain and by measuring the dependence of the average chain-conductance on the length of the chain. Additionally, we have performed calculations that give insight in the physical mechanism of the oxygen-induced strengthening of the linear bonds and the conductance of the metal-oxygen chains.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Aluminium Nanowires: Influence of Work Hardening on Conductance Histograms

Conductance histograms of work-hardened Al show a series up to 11 equidistant peaks with a period of 1.15 +/- 0.02 of the quantum conductance unit G_0 = 2e^2/h. Assuming the peaks originate from atomic discreteness, this agrees with the value of 1.16 G_0 per atom obtained in numerical calculations by Hasmy et al.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Electronic and atomic shell structure in aluminum nanowires

We report experiments on aluminum nanowires in ultra-high vacuum at room temperature that reveal a periodic spectrum of exceptionally stable structures. Two "magic" series of stable structures are observed: At low conductance, the formation of stable nanowires is governed by electronic shell effects whereas for larger contacts atomic packing dominates. The crossover between the two regimes is found to be smooth. A detailed comparison of the experimental results to a theoretical stability analysis indicates that while the main features of the observed electron-shell structure are similar to those of alkali and noble metals, a sequence of extremely stable wires plays a unique role in Aluminum. This series appears isolated in conductance histograms and can be attributed to "superdeformed" non-axisymmetric nanowires.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Magneto-quantum oscillations of the conductance of a tunnel point-contact in the presence of a single defect

The influence of a quantizing magnetic field $H$ to the conductance of a tunnel point contact in the presence of the single defect has been considered. We demonstrate that the conductance exhibits specific magneto-quantum oscillations, the amplitude and period of which depend on the distance between the contact and the defect. We show that a non-monotonic dependence of the point-contact conductance results from a superposition of two types of oscillations: A short period oscillation arising from electron focusing by the field $H$ and a long period oscillation of Aharonov-Bohm-type originated from the magnetic flux passing through the closed trajectories of electrons moving from the contact to the defect and returning back to the contact.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Evidence for a single hydrogen molecule connected by an atomic chain

Stable, single-molecule conducting-bridge configurations are typically identified from peak structures in a conductance histogram. In previous work on Pt with H$_2$ at cryogenic temperatures it has been shown that a peak near 1 $G{_0}$ identifies a single molecule Pt-H$_{2}$-Pt bridge. The histogram shows an additional structure with lower conductance that has not been identified. Here, we show that it is likely due to a hydrogen decorated Pt chain in contact with the H$_2$ molecular bridge.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Formation of a Metallic Contact: Jump to Contact Revisited

The transition from tunneling to metallic contact between two surfaces does not always involve a jump, but can be smooth. We have observed that the configuration and material composition of the electrodes before contact largely determines the presence or absence of a jump. Moreover, when jumps are found preferential values of conductance have been identified. Through combination of experiments, molecular dynamics, and first-principles transport calculations these conductance values are identified with atomic contacts of either monomers, dimers or double-bond contacts.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Effect of bonding of a CO molecule on the conductance of atomic metal wires

We have measured the effect of bonding of a CO molecule on the conductance of Au, Cu, Pt, and Ni atomic contacts at 4.2 K. When CO gas is admitted to the metal nano contacts, a conductance feature appears in the conductance histogram near 0.5 of the quantum unit of conductance, for all metals. For Au, the intensity of this fractional conductance feature can be tuned with the bias voltage, and it disappears at high bias voltage (above $\sim$ 200 mV). The bonding of CO to Au appears to be weakest, and associated with monotomic Au wire formation.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2006

Vibrationally Induced Two-Level Systems in Single-Molecule Junctions

Single-molecule junctions are found to show anomalous spikes in dI/dV spectra. The position in energy of the spikes are related to local vibration mode energies. A model of vibrationally induced two-level systems reproduces the data very well. This mechanism is expected to be quite general for single-molecule junctions. It acts as an intrinsic amplification mechanism for local vibration mode features and may be exploited as a new spectroscopic tool.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Signature of Fermi surface anisotropy in point contact conductance in the presence of defects

In a previous paper (Avotina et al.,Phys. Rev. B Vol.71, 115430 (2005)) we have shown that in principle it is possible to image the defect positions below a metal surface by means of a scanning tunnelling microscope. The principle relies on the interference of electron waves scattered on the defects, which give rise to small but measurable conductance fluctuations. Whereas in that work the band structure was assumed to be free-electron like, here we investigate the effects of Fermi surface anisotropy. We demonstrate that the amplitude and period of the conductance oscillations are determined by the local geometry of the Fermi surface. The signal results from those points for which the electron velocity is directed along the vector connecting the point contact to the defect. For a general Fermi surface geometry the position of the maximum amplitude of the conductance oscillations is not found for the tip directly above the defect. We have determined optimal conditions for determination of defect positions in metals with closed and open Fermi surfaces.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Atomic size oscillations in conductance histograms for gold nanowires and the influence of work hardening

Nanowires of different nature have been shown to self-assemble as a function of stress at the contact between two macroscopic metallic leads. Here we demonstrate for gold wires that the balance between various metastable nanowire configurations is influenced by the microstructure of the starting materials and we discover a new set of periodic structures, which we interpret as due to the atomic discreteness of the contact size for the three principal crystal orientations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Oxygen enhanced atomic chain formation

We report experimental evidence for atomic chain formation during stretching of atomic-sized contacts for gold and silver, that is strongly enhanced due to oxygen incorporation. While gold has been known for its tendency to form atomic chains, for silver this is only observed in the presence of oxygen. With oxygen the silver chains are as long as those for gold, but the conductance drops with chain length to about 0.1 conductance quantum. A relation is suggested with previous work on surface reconstructions for silver (110) surfaces after chemisorption of oxygen.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Observation of shell effects in nanowires for the noble metals copper, silver and gold

We extend our previous shell effect observation in gold nanowires at room temperature under ultra high vacuum to the other two noble metals: silver and copper. Similar to gold, silver nanowires present two series of exceptionally stable diameters related to electronic and atomic shell filling. This observation is in concordance to what was previously found for alkali metal nanowires. Copper however presents only electronic shell filling. Remarkably we find that shell structure survives under ambient conditions for gold and silver.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗