Conductance quantization in metal nanowires produced by chemical anodization

Measurements of the conductance of a metal nanowire are performed. A niobium nanowire is produced during etching and subsequent anodization of a macroscopic wire at the location where the wire is preconstricted. At the final stage, before the conductor ruptures, the dependence of the conductivity on the decreasing diameter shows a distinct step structure with horizontal sections approximately corresponding to integral conductance quanta 2e2/h=7.75⋅10−5 S. This phenomenon is explained as a discrete passage of electron wave functions through an atomic-size metal contact between two massive electrodes.

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