Conductance of atom-sized contacts of In has been measured in ultrahigh vacuum at room temperature. The conductance histogram shows a peak at 0.83G0 (G0≡ 2e2/h is the conductance quantum) and a broad structure spanning from 1.5G0 to 4G0 with small peaks at ∼ 1.8G0, ∼ 2.5G0, and ∼ 3.3G0. The observed histogram is in overall agreement with the one obtained at 4 K (Makk et al., Phys. Rev. B 78, 045414 (2008)) but markedly differs from the histogram of Ga (Lewis et al., Solid State Commun. 109, 525 (1999)) which reveals no peak features at room temperature. Because the crystal structure of In is nearly FCC, our results support the conjecture suggested by Lewis et al. that the absence of peaks in the room-temperature histogram of Ga might be related to complexities in the crystal structure of Ga and its deformation characteristics. We also found that the same conductance trace sometimes appears repetitively in successive contact breaks. Such replication of the conductance trace is often observed at cryogenic temperatures but unexpected at room temperature particularly for soft metals such as In. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2011.85]
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机译：在室温下，在超高真空下测量了In原子大小的触点的电导。电导直方图在0.83G0处显示一个峰（G0≡2e2/ h是电导量子），其结构从1.5G0到4G0，在〜1.8G0，〜2.5G0和〜3.3G0处有一个小峰。观察到的直方图与在4 K处获得的直方图总体上是一致的（Makk等，Phys。Rev. B 78，045414（2008）），但与Ga的直方图明显不同（Lewis等，Solid State Commun。 109，525（1999））揭示了在室温下没有峰特征。因为In的晶体结构接近FCC，所以我们的结果支持Lewis等人的推测。 Ga的室温直方图中不存在峰可能与Ga的晶体结构的复杂性及其变形特性有关。我们还发现，在连续的接触中断中，有时会重复出现相同的电导迹线。经常在低温下观察到电导迹线的这种复制，但是在室温下却出乎意料，特别是对于诸如In的软金属。 [DOI：10.1380 / ejssnt.2011.85]
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