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Observation of Supershell Structure in Alkali Metal Nanowires

A. I. Yanson, I. K. Yanson, J. M. van Ruitenbeek

cond-mat.mes-hallarXiv:cond-mat/0005157

Abstract

Nanowires are formed by indenting and subsequently retracting two pieces of sodium metal. Their cross-section gradually reduces upon retraction and the diameters can be obtained from the conductance. In previous work we have demonstrated that when one constructs a histogram of diameters from large numbers of indentation-retraction cycles, such histograms show a periodic pattern of stable nanowire diameters due to shell structure in the conductance modes. Here, we report the observation of a modulation of this periodic pattern, in agreement with predictions of a supershell structure.

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