Electron Transport In Nanowires – An Engineer'S View

Conference paper
Part of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics book series (NAPSB)

In the paper technological problems connected to electron transport in mesoscopic- and nanostructures are considered. The electrical conductance of nanowires formed by metallic contacts in an experimental setup proposed by Costa-Kramer et al. The investigation has been performed in air at room temperature measuring the conductance between two vibrating metal wires with standard oscilloscope. Conductance quantization in units of G o = 2e /h = (12.9 kΩ)−1 up to five quanta of conductance has been observed for nanowires formed in many metals. The explanation of this universal phenomena is the formation of a nanometer-sized wire (nanowire) between macroscopic metallic contacts which induced, due to theory proposed by Landauer, the quantization of conductance. Thermal problems in nanowirese are also discussed in the paper.

Keywords

electron transport nanowires conductance 

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Copyright information

© Springer Science + Business Media B.V 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Faculty of Electronics and TelecommunicationsPoznan University of TechnologyPoznanPoland

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