Experimental determination of conduction channels in atomic scale conductors based on shot noise measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces an experimental method to determine conduction channels in atomic-scale conductors using shot noise measurements, enabling detailed analysis of electron transport at the nanoscale.

Contribution

The study presents a numerical approach to extract transmission coefficients from conductance and Fano factor measurements, applied to atomic contacts of various metals.

Findings

Channel evolution varies with conductance and elongation

Method successfully applied to Ag, Au, Al, and Pt contacts

Approach adaptable to diverse nanoscale conductors

Abstract

We present an experimental procedure for obtaining the conduction channels of low-dimensional conductors based on shot noise measurements. The transmission coefficient for each channel is determined numerically from the measured conductance and Fano factor. The channel analysis is demonstrated for atomic contacts of Ag, Au, Al and Pt, showing their channel evolution as a function of conductance and mechanical elongation. This approach can be readily applied to map the conduction channels in a wide range of nanoscale conductors under different conditions.