Chains of atoms

Our interest in this subject started in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Chains of atoms were discovered [1] in a collaboration between the Laboratorio de bajas temperaturas at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium at Leiden Universiteit. At the same time a similar structure was observed using a transmission electron microscope at room temperature[2].

[1] A.I. Yanson, G. Rubio Bollinger, H.E van den Brom, N. Agraït, J.M van Ruitenbeek, Nature 395, 783 (1998)
[2] H. Ohnishi, Y. Kondo, and K.Takayanagi, Nature 395, 780 (1998)

In the universidad de Alicante we are interested to understand in depth the processes involved in the formation of the chain. We would like to be able to make longer chains and to make chains of materials that spontaneously do not form chains.
There also questions related to the conductance of the atomic chains and about the electron-phonon interaction in these that we would like to adress.

Selected publications

Common origin for surface reconstruction and the formation of chains of metal atoms. R.H.M. Smit, C. Untiedt, A.I. Yanson, J.M. van Ruitenbeek. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 266102 (2001).
Onset of dissipation in ballistic atomic wires Nicolás Agraït, Carlos Untiedt, Gabino Rubio-Bollinger, Sebastián Vieira. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 216803 (2002)
Electron transport and phonons in atomic wires N. Agraït, C. Untiedt, G. Rubio-Bollinger, S.Vieira. Chem. Phys. 281, 231 (2002)
Calibration of the length of a chain of single gold atoms. C. Untiedt, A.I. Yanson, R. Grande, G. Rubio Bollinger, N. Agraït, J.M. van Ruitenbeek. Phys. Rev. B. 66, 085418 (2002).
Observation of a length-dependent oscillation of conductance in atomic wires. R.H.M. Smit, C. Untiedt, G. Rubio-Bollinger, R.C. Segers, J.M. van Ruitenbeek. Phys. Rev. Lett 91,076805 (2003)

Last update: 28 of August 2003