Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 036803 (2003) [4 pages]Signature of a Chemical Bond in the Conductance between Two Metal SurfacesReceived 21 October 2002; published 17 July 2003 Conductance in monatomic metal contacts is quantized; it increases in discrete steps of one conductance quantum 2e2/h. By contrast, in a vacuum barrier between two metal surfaces we find that conductance increases linearly and continuously with the interaction energy between individual atoms. This behavior shows unambiguously that current flow between single atoms is a measure for their chemical interaction. In the controlled environment of a scanning tunneling microscope it should allow us to study the formation of covalent bonds up to the point where these atoms finally jump into contact. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.036803
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.036803
PACS:
73.40.Gk, 71.15.Mb, 73.23.Hk
See AlsoComment: C. Julian Chen, Comment on “Signature of a Chemical Bond in the Conductance between Two Metal Surfaces”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 069701 (2006). Reply: Werner A. Hofer and Andrew J. Fisher, Hofer and Fisher Reply:, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 069702 (2006). |
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