Correlating structure, conductance, and mechanics of silver atomic-scale contacts

We measure simultaneously force and conductance of Ag metal point-contacts under ambient conditions at room temperature. We observe the formation of contacts with a conductance close to 1 G0, the quantum of conductance, which can be attributed to a single-atom contact, similar to those formed by Au. We also find two additional conductance features at ∼0.4 G0 and ∼1.3 G0, which have been previously ascribed to contacts with oxygen contaminations. Here, using a conductance cross-correlation technique, we distinguish three different atomic-scale structural motifs and analyze their rupture forces and stiffness. Our results allow us to assign the ∼0.4 G0 conductance feature to an Ag–O–Ag contact and the ∼1.3 G0 feature to an Ag–Ag single-atom contact with an oxygen atom in parallel. Utilizing complementary information from force and conductance, we thus demonstrate the correlation of conductance with the structural evolution at the atomic scale.