Regular atomic narrowing of Ni, Fe and V nanowires resolved by 2D correlation analysis

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new statistical 2D correlation method to analyze atomic configurations in breaking nanowires, revealing ordered atomic narrowing in Ni, Fe, and V that traditional histograms miss.

Contribution

A novel 2D correlation analysis technique for detailed study of atomic configurations in nanowires during breaking processes.

Findings

Ordered atomic narrowing observed in Ni, Fe, V nanowires

Regular stepwise decrease in minimal cross section

Traditional histograms do not reveal these features

Abstract

We present a novel statistical method for the study of stable atomic configurations in breaking nanowires based on the 2D cross-correlation analysis of conductance versus electrode separation traces. Applying this method, we can clearly resolve the typical evolutions of the conductance staircase in some transition metal nanojunctions (Ni, Fe, V) up to high conductance values. In these metals our analysis demonstrates a very well ordered atomic narrowing of the nanowire, indicating a very regular, stepwise decrease of the number of atoms in the minimal cross section of the junction, in contrast to the majority of the metals. All these features are hidden in traditional conductance histograms.