Non-universal behavior of the parity effect in monovalent atomic wires

TL;DR

This paper introduces a combined analytical and ab-initio approach to accurately compute conductance in monovalent atomic wires, revealing that conductance behavior is highly sensitive to contact details, explaining previous contradictory findings.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel mixed analytical-ab-initio method for conductance calculation that accounts for contact-specific effects, demonstrating non-universal conductance behavior.

Findings

Conductance depends on contact details.

Reconciles contradictory previous results.

Method provides accurate conductance predictions.

Abstract

We propose a mixed analytical-ab-initio method for the accurate calculation of the conductance in monovalent atomic wires. The method relies on the most general formula for ballistic transport through a monovalent wire, whose parameters can be determined from first-principles calculations. Our central result is the demonstration of the highly non-universal behavior of the conductance, which depends on the fine details of the contacts to the leads. We are therefore able to reconcile a large number of the apparently contradictory results that have recently appeared in the literature.