{
  "id": "cond-mat/0204358",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2002-04-17T00:50:29.000Z",
  "updated": "2002-04-17T00:50:29.000Z",
  "title": "Cohesion and Stability of Metal Nanowires: A Quantum Chaos Approach",
  "authors": [
    "C. A. Stafford",
    "F. Kassubek",
    "H. Grabert"
  ],
  "comment": "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",
  "journal": "Adv. Solid State Phys., vol. 41, p. 497 (2001)",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.mes-hall",
    "nlin.CD"
  ],
  "abstract": "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.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2002-04-17T00:50:29.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "quantum chaos approach",
      "alkali metal nanowires",
      "linear stability analysis",
      "metallic point contact",
      "cohesive force"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 14,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2002cond.mat..4358S"
    }
  }
}