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Structural and transport properties of Nb nanowires
Author(s) -
Dai Zhenting,
Zhang Chun,
Barnett Robert N.,
Marchenkov Alexei,
Landman Uzi
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.200675362
Subject(s) - bistability , conductance , nanowire , niobium , condensed matter physics , materials science , dimer , nanoscopic scale , elongation , superconductivity , noise (video) , nanotechnology , chemical physics , chemistry , physics , optoelectronics , nuclear magnetic resonance , image (mathematics) , artificial intelligence , computer science , metallurgy , ultimate tensile strength
High‐resolution conductance measurements in niobium nanowires below the superconducting transition temperature are presented. Results are shown for a complete multistage elongation‐compression cycle of a nanoscale contact. We focus on a bistability region which manifests itself as random telegraph noise. Density functional structural optimizations and conductance calculations using the non‐equilibrium Green's functions method reproduce and explain the measurements. In particular, the observed bistability is associated with formation of a niobium dimer between the opposing electrodes, with the dimer shuttling between a symmetric, high conductance, and an asymmetric, low conductance, configurations in the gap. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)