Current-induced dynamics in carbon atomic contacts

• Jing-Tao Lü,
• Tue Gunst,
• Per Hedegård and
• Mads Brandbyge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 814–823, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.90

• . Molecular dynamics including current-induced forces enables an energy redistribution mechanism among the modes, mediated by anharmonic interactions, which is found to be vital in the description of the electrical heating. Conclusion: We have developed a semiclassical Langevin equation approach that can be

• used to explore current-induced dynamics and instabilities. We find instabilities at experimentally relevant bias and gate voltages for the carbon-chain system. Keywords: carbon-nanoelectronics; current-induced forces; molecular contacts; nanoscale Joule heating; semiclassical Langevin equation

• computer simulation techniques, such as molecular dynamics (MD), preferably without adjustable parameters, to study in detail the complex current-driven atomic processes. To this end, we recently developed an approach based on the semiclassical Langevin equation, which may form the basis of MD. In this