Host: The Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science
Metal nano-contacts (NCs) have been studied by many groups since they show unique physical behaviors due to surface effect and quantum confinement. Among them, the atomic chains formation and their physical properties such as electrical conductance have attracted a great deal of interest because they are ultimate one-dimensional material. However, the mechanical property of atomic chains has not been investigated much although it is closely related with the electrical property and very important for novel microelectronics. In this study, for measure the effective spring constant of Pt atomic chain, we employed a transmission electron microscope (TEM) combined with a frequency-modulation force sensing system, which was used for non-contact atomic force microscopy.We could measure the spring constants of Pt atomic chains suspended between two electrodes for the first time. These results depended on the number of Pt atoms in the chain or the relative position of the Pt atomic chain to the edge structure of the electrode, which was resonalbe theoretically.
