Electronic shell effects and the stability of alkali nanowires
arXiv:cond-mat/0410286 · doi:10.1016/j.ssc.2004.05.038
Abstract
Experimental conductance histograms for Na nanowires are analyzed in detail and compared to recent theoretical results on the stability of cylindrical and elliptical nanowires, using the free-electron model. We find a one-to-one correspondence between the peaks in the histograms and the most stable nanowire geometries, indicating that several of the commonly observed nanowires have elliptical cross sections.