Quantized thermal transport in single-atom junctions
Abstract
Electrical and thermal conductivity in metals are linked at the macroscopic length scale because electrons carry both heat and current. Cui et al. found that this relationship, the Wiedemann-Franz law, holds down to the atomic scale in gold and platinum (see the Perspective by Segal). They made thermal and electrical conductance measurements through a point contact only one atom thick. In gold, the thermal and electrical conductance was quantized, owing to the electronic band structure of the metal. The experiments pave the way for high-resolution calorimetry and other thermal measurements at the nanoscale.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 17, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aam6622
Entities
People
- Edgar Meyhofer
- Fabian Pauly
- Jan C Klöckner
- Juan Carlos Cuevas
- Longji Cui
- Manuel Matt
- Peter Nielaba
- Pramod Reddy
- Sunghoon Hur
- Wonho Jeong
Organizations
- Autonomous University of Madrid
- Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
- German Research Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Konstanz
- University of Michigan