Pulling gold nanowires with a hydrogen clamp: Strong interactions of hydrogen molecules with gold nanojunctions

Csonka, Szabolcs; Halbritter, András; Mihály, G.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.73.075405

Cited by 70 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Although a cutting of the d-Wannier functions of the first Pt atom alone does not have a large effect on the conductance and seems to even enhance it, the conduc- tance is drastically reduced if both the s and d orbitals of the same Pt atom are blocked. We point out that our explanation of the conductance reduction is not in contradiction with the one given by Barnett et al [21] for the Au-H 2 -Au system [22] but just offers a different perspective. For structure (B) we also compared the transmission functions of the atomic wire system with that of the more realistic surface calculation in Fig.…”

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confidence: 44%

Evidence for a Single Hydrogen Molecule Connected by an Atomic Chain

et al. 2007

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Stable, single-molecule conducting-bridge configurations are typically identified from peak structures in a conductance histogram. In previous work on Pt with H 2 at cryogenic temperatures it has been shown that a peak near 1G 0 identifies a single-molecule Pt-H 2 -Pt bridge. The histogram shows an additional structure with lower conductance that has not been identified. Here, we show that it is likely due to a hydrogen decorated Pt chain in contact with the H 2 molecular bridge. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.146802 PACS numbers: 73.63.Rt, 63.22.+m, 73.23.ÿb, 85.65.+h The interest in chains of single metal atoms bridging between two electrodes is largely due to their unique properties as ideal one-dimensional systems [1]. For clean metals, only Au, Pt, and Ir form atomic chains [2,3]. However, atomic or molecular adsorption on metal surfaces can widen this scope. Recently, 2 nm long Ag atomic chains have been created in the presence of oxygen at ultralow temperature, while clean Ag only forms short chains [4]. Atomic chains have been imaged by transmission electron microscope for the noble metals Cu, Ag, and Au [5][6][7][8].In the first experiments contacting molecules by Pt atomic leads it was shown that a single hydrogen molecule H 2 can be contacted and there appeared to be no indication for atomic chain formation [9,10]. By use of point contact spectroscopy and shot noise measurements, the system was characterized in detail and close agreement with atomistic model calculations was obtained [9,10]. The Pt-H 2 -Pt junction was first identified by its conductance. It shows up as a recurring plateau in the conductance when controllably breaking a contact, and in a histogram of conductance values collected for many such breakings it gives rise to a sharp peak near 1G 0 , where 1G 0 2e 2 =h is the conductance quantum. This main peak at 1G 0 for the Pt=H 2 system is therefore well understood. However, there is more structure in the conductance histogram for the Pt=H 2 junctions, which has not been explained. In particular, a strong peak is found at about 0:1-0:2G 0 , suggesting that other configurations of hydrogen between Pt leads may be formed. In the present study we focus on those structures, having a conductance below 1G 0 , and we present evidence that they can be attributed to the formation of a hydrogen decorated Pt atomic chain that forms one of the leads contacting a hydrogen molecule.The measurements have been performed using the mechanically controllable break junction technique (see Ref.[11] for a detailed description). Once under vacuum and cooled to 4.2 K a fine Pt wire was broken. Atomicsized contacts between the wire ends can be formed using a piezoelement for fine adjustment. H 2 was admitted via a capillary. dc two-point voltage-biased conductance measurements were performed by applying a voltage in the range from 10 to 150 mV. Every statistical data set was built from a large number (over 3000) of individual digitized conductance traces. ac voltage bias conductance measurements were performed ...

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confidence: 44%

Evidence for a Single Hydrogen Molecule Connected by an Atomic Chain

et al. 2007

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“…hydrogen molecules were intentionally introduced into the experimental setup [13], but they also found a unique feature, namely, some conductance traces presented a well-defined periodic structure with a pronounced positive slope upon stretching in the low-conductance region of 0.05-0.3G 0 [14]. At the same time Kiguchi and co-workers studied the influence of hydrogen molecules on Au atomic contacts using action and inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy, and found the signature of vibration modes related to bonding between Au and H [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides these experimental studies a substantial amount of theoretical investigations focused on the mechanical, vibrational, and electronic transport properties of gold nanowires doped with atomic and molecular hydrogen [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Although previous studies have revealed the role of atomic hydrogen in the origin of the conductance peak near 0.5G 0 [19], there is still no reasonable explanation for the appearance of the peculiar periodic structure in the conductance curve and the distribution of vibration energies in the low-conductance region [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of the periodic structure in the conductance curve of gold nanojunctions in hydrogen environment

et al. 2016

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The evolution of the atomic structure and the vibrational and electronic transport properties of gold atomic junctions incorporating molecular and atomic hydrogen upon elongation have been investigated with the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism combined with density functional theory. Our calculations show that for the case of gold junctions doped with a single H 2 molecule the low-bias conductance drops rapidly with the electrodes' separation, while it remains almost constant if a single H atom replaces the molecule. In contrast, when one considers two H atoms adsorbed on a gold monatomic chain forming an Au-H-Au-H-Au double-bridge structure, the low-bias conductance increases first and then shows a plateau upon stretching the junction, in perfect agreement with experiments on gold nanocontacts in hydrogen environment. Furthermore, also the distribution of the calculated vibrational energies of the two H atoms is consistent with the experimental result in the low-conductance region, demonstrating clear evidence that hydrogen molecules can dissociate on stretched gold monatomic chains. These findings are helpful to improve our understanding of the structure-property relation of gold nanocontacts and also provide a new prospect for gold nanowires being used as chemical sensors and catalysts.

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“…In particular, experimental investigations have demonstrated, in a wide class of structures, that molecular devices could manifest non-linear transport behavior (e.g. Negative Differential Resistance (NDR) or switching) [1][2][3][4]. Moreover, some transport theories of model devices have indicated a possible explanation of these effects also in terms of polaronic effects [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insulator-metal transition in biased finite polyyne systems

Magna

Deretzis

2009

Eur. Phys. J. B

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A method for the study of the electronic transport in strongly coupled electron-phonon systems is formalized and applied to a model of polyyne chains biased through metallic Au leads. We derive a stationary non equilibrium polaronic theory in the general framework of a variational formulation. The numerical procedure we propose can be readily applied if the electron-phonon interaction in the device hamiltonian can be approximated as an effective single particle electron hamiltonian. Using this approach, we predict that finite polyyne chains should manifest an insulator-metal transition driven by the non-equilibrium charging which inhibits the Peierls instability characterizing the equilibrium state.

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Pulling gold nanowires with a hydrogen clamp: Strong interactions of hydrogen molecules with gold nanojunctions

Cited by 70 publications

References 15 publications

Evidence for a Single Hydrogen Molecule Connected by an Atomic Chain

Evidence for a Single Hydrogen Molecule Connected by an Atomic Chain

Origin of the periodic structure in the conductance curve of gold nanojunctions in hydrogen environment

Insulator-metal transition in biased finite polyyne systems

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