Stable single atomic silver wires assembling into a circuitry-connectable nanoarray

Publication Name

Nature Communications

Abstract

Atomic metal wires have great promise for practical applications in devices due to their unique electronic properties. Unfortunately, such atomic wires are extremely unstable. Here we fabricate stable atomic silver wires (ASWs) with appreciably unoccupied states inside the parallel tunnels of α-MnO nanorods. These unoccupied Ag 4d orbitals strengthen the Ag–Ag bonds, greatly enhancing the stability of ASWs while the presence of delocalized 5s electrons makes the ASWs conducting. These stable ASWs form a coherently oriented three-dimensional wire array of over 10 nm in width and up to 1 μm in length allowing us to connect it to nano-electrodes. Current-voltage characteristics of ASWs show a temperature-dependent insulator-to-metal transition, suggesting that the atomic wires could be used as thermal electrical devices. 2

Open Access Status

This publication may be available as open access

Volume

12

Issue

1

Article Number

1191

Funding Number

NEL-KF-201903

Funding Sponsor

National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21462-3