Statistical evidence of strain induced breaking of metallic point contacts

Monzer Alwan (1) , Nadine Candoni (1, 2) , Philippe Dumas (1) , Hubert Klein (1)

1 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille
2 GPEC - Groupe de Physique des Etats Condensés

A Scanning Tunneling Microscopy in Break Junction regime and a Mechanically Controllable Break Junction are used to acquire thousands of conductance-elongation curves by stretching until breaking and reconnecting Au junctions. From a robust statistical analysis performed on large sets of experiments , parameters such as lifetime, elongation and occurrence probabilities are extracted. The analysis of results obtained for different stretching speeds of the electrodes indicates that the breaking mechanism of di-and mono-atomic junction is identical, and that the junctions undergo atomic rearrangement during their stretching and at the moment of breaking.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Monzer Alwan, Nadine Candoni, Philippe Dumas, Hubert Klein. Statistical evidence of strain induced breaking of metallic point contacts. The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 2013, 86 (6), pp.243. ⟨10.1140/epjb/e2013-40040-5⟩. ⟨hal-04463262⟩