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Mechanical Properties of Metallic Nanocontacts

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Fundamentals of Friction and Wear on the Nanoscale

Part of the book series: NanoScience and Technology ((NANO))

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Abstract

The mechanical properties of the reduced number of atoms forming the apex of a tip are interesting both from a fundamental point of view and for the interpretation of experiments related to scanning local probe methods. These mechanical properties can be studied by establishing a very small contact, a nanocontact, between a tip and a surface. The elasticity and fracture events during the controlled breaking of a nanocontact as the tip is separated from the surface provide information about the mechanical properties of the tip apex. In the case of metallic tips, electron transport through the nanocontact also provides information on its mechanical properties, because at the scale of a few atoms forming the nanocontact the mechanical and electron transport properties are strongly related.

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Abbreviations

AFM:

Atomic force microscope

DFT:

Density functional theory

DOS:

Density of states

MCBJ:

Mechanically controlled break-junction

MD:

Molecular dynamics

MFM:

Magnetic force microscopy

PC:

Point contact

PCS:

Point contact spectroscopy

SNOM:

Scanning near-field optical microscopy

SPM:

Scanning probe microscopy

STM:

Scanning tunneling microscope

TF:

Tuning fork

UHV:

Ultra high vacuum

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge fruitful discussions with C. Untiedt, R.H.M. Smit and P. Joyez. This work was partially supported by MINECO (MAT2011-25046) and by Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) through program Citecnomik (S-0505/ESP/0337).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada C-III, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Gabino Rubio-Bollinger, Juan J. Riquelme, Sebastian Vieira & Nicolas Agraït

Authors
  1. Gabino Rubio-Bollinger
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  2. Juan J. Riquelme
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  3. Sebastian Vieira
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  4. Nicolas Agraït
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabino Rubio-Bollinger .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia, Madrid, Spain

    Enrico Gnecco

  2. University of Basel Department of Physics, Basel, Switzerland

    Ernst Meyer

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Rubio-Bollinger, G., Riquelme, J.J., Vieira, S., Agraït, N. (2015). Mechanical Properties of Metallic Nanocontacts. In: Gnecco, E., Meyer, E. (eds) Fundamentals of Friction and Wear on the Nanoscale. NanoScience and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10560-4_16

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