Publication
Physical Review Letters
Paper
Anomalous dependence of resistance on length in atomic wires
Abstract
The resistance of an atomic Na wire between two macroscopic metallic electrodes is found to decrease by a factor of 2 going from the 1- to the 2-atom wire, and then to stay roughly the same for the 2-, 3-, and 4-atom wires. The initial decrease in resistance is related to the phenomenon of incomplete valence resonances for an atom interacting with a continuum of states. Such resonances lead to what might be called incomplete conduction channels. © 1997 The American Physical Society.