Sensitivity of gold nano-conductors to common contaminations: ab initio results

Gold nanowire chains are considered a good candidate for nanoelectronic devices because they exhibit remarkable structural and electrical properties. A previous study shows that the beryllium-terminated BeO (0001) surface may be a useful platform for supporting nano gold conductors, since it preserves the nano-wire configuration, does not restrict its conductivity, and even enhances it. However, the influence of contamination on the conductivity of such conductors is unknown. Here, ab initio simulations were performed to determine the effect of commonly adsorbed contaminants (H 2 O and O 2 ) on the conductivity of gold nano-conductors. We found that the presence of adsorbed impurities does not alter the good conductive ability of the conductors under examination.