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Influence of chopped laser light onto the electronic transport through atomic‐sized contacts
Author(s) -
GUHR D.C.,
RETTINGER D.,
BONEBERG J.,
ERBE A.,
LEIDERER P.,
SCHEER E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.2008.01920.x
Subject(s) - conductance , rectification , laser , wavelength , materials science , irradiation , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , optics , condensed matter physics , physics , power (physics) , quantum mechanics , nuclear physics
Summary This paper reports on the influence of laser irradiation onto the electrical conductance of gold nanocontacts established with the mechanically controllable breakjunction technique. We concentrate here on the study of reversible conductance changes which can be as high as 200%. We investigate the dependence on the initial conductance of the contacts, the wavelength, the intensity and position of the laser spot with respect to the sample. Under most conditions an enhancement of the conductance is observed. We discuss several physical mechanisms which might contribute to the observed effect including thermal expansion, rectification and photon‐assisted transport. We conclude that thermal expansion is not the dominating one.