Hydrogen-assisted distortion of gold nanowires

TL;DR

This study explores how adsorbed hydrogen significantly alters the conductance properties of gold nanowires, leading to a new conductance peak caused by hydrogen-assisted distortion of atomic gold chains.

Contribution

It reveals the impact of hydrogen on gold nanojunction conductance and identifies a new conductance peak linked to hydrogen-assisted atomic chain distortion.

Findings

Hydrogen environment causes a new conductance peak at 0.5 quantum units.

Hydrogen-assisted distortion influences atomic gold chain behavior.

Conductance histograms reflect hydrogen's effect on gold nanowires.

Abstract

In this paper the influence of adsorbed hydrogen on the behavior of gold nanojunctions is investigated. It is found, that the hydrogen environment has a strong effect on the conductance of atomic-sized gold junctions, which is markedly reflected by the growth of an additional peak in the conductance histogram at 0.5 quantum unit, 2e^2/h. The statistical analysis of the conductance traces implies that the new peak arises due to the hydrogen-assisted distortion of atomic gold chains.