1.
Phys Rev Lett
; 107(12): 126802, 2011 Sep 16.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22026784
ABSTRACT
Experimental conductivity measurements made during highly stable tensile deformation of Au nanowires show a rich variety of behaviors, including noninteger quantum conductance plateaus, transitions, and slopes. Using tight binding conductance calculations on simulated nanowires previously deformed using density functional theory, we demonstrate that all of these phenomena arise from structural transitions between deeply metastable ordered atomic configurations that self-organize during tensile deformation.