Stretching Single Atom Contacts at Multiple Subatomic Step-Lengths

YI-MIN WEI, ZHAO-BIN CHEN, JING-HONG LIANG, XIAO-SHUN ZHOU, BING-WEI MAO, O. A. OVIEDO AND E. P.M. LEIVA

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Lugar: CAMBRIDGE; Año: 2013 vol. 15 p. 12459 - 12459

his work describes jump-to-contact STM-break junction experiments leading to novel statistical distribution of last-step length associated with conductance of a single atom contact. Last-step length histograms are observed with up to five for Fe and three for Cu peaks at integral multiples close to 0.075 nm, a subatomic distance. A model is proposed in terms of gliding from a fcc hollow-site to a hcp hollow-site of adjacent atomic planes at 1/3 regular layer spacing along with tip stretching to account for the multiple subatomic step-length behavior.