Conductance oscillation and quantization in monatomic Al wires

Abstract

We present first-principles calculations for the transport properties of monatomic Al wires sandwiched between Al(100) electrodes. The conductance of the monatomic Al wires oscillates with the number of constituent atoms as a function of the wire length, either with a period of four atoms, for wires with the typical interatomic spacing, or with a period of six atoms, for wires with the interatomic spacing of bulk face centred cubic aluminium, indicating a dependence of the period of conductance oscillation on the interatomic spacing of the monatomic Al wires. © IOP Publishing Ltd.