Stability of Metal Nanowires at Ultrahigh Current Densities

Details Stability of Metal Nanowires at Ultrahigh Current Densities Stability of Metal Nanowires at Ultrahigh Current Densities

2004-11-02

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0411058v3

Phys. Rev. B 71, 235404 (2005)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

12 pages, 6 figures, version published in PRB

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevB.71.235404

We develop a generalized grand canonical potential for the ballistic nonequilibrium electron distribution in a metal nanowire with a finite applied bias voltage. Coulomb interactions are treated in the self-consistent Hartree approximation, in order to ensure gauge invariance. Using this formalism, we investigate the stability and cohesive properties of metallic nanocylinders at ultrahigh current densities. A linear stability analysis shows that metal nanowires with certain {\em magic conductance values} can support current densities up to 10^11 A/cm^2, which would vaporize a macroscopic piece of metal. This finding is consistent with experimental studies of gold nanowires. Interestingly, our analysis also reveals the existence of reentrant stability zones--geometries that are stable only under an applied bias.

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