2002/04/17 by C. A. Stafford, F. Kassubek, H. Grabert
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall #nlin.CD
published as Adv. Solid State Phys., vol. 41, p. 497 (2001) · 14 pages, 11 figures, lecture given at the Symposium on 30 Years of the Gutzwiller Trace Formula, German Physical Society Meeting, Hamburg, March 28, 2001
arxiv created 2002/04/17 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
A remarkably quantitative understanding of the electrical and mechanical properties of metal wires with a thickness on the scale of a nanometer has been obtained within the free-electron model using semiclassical techniques. Convergent trace formulas for the density of states and cohesive force of a narrow constriction in an electron gas, whose classical motion is either chaotic or integrable, are derived. Mode quantization in a metallic point contact or nanowire leads to universal oscillations in its cohesive force, whose amplitude depends only on a dimensionless quantum parameter describing the crossover from chaotic to integrable motion, and is of order 1nN, in agreement with experiments on gold nanowires. A linear stability analysis shows that the classical instability of a long wire under surface tension can be completely suppressed by quantum effects, leading to stable cylindrical configurations whose electrical conductance is a magic number 1, 3, 5, 6,... times the conductance quantum, in accord with recent results on alkali metal nanowires.