Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 81, Issue 7, Pages 1252-1254Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.1497188
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Light emission with a blackbody-like spectrum was observed during current flow through atomic-size metallic contacts formed in the scanning tunneling microscope. Within the contact, the electron temperature rises above the lattice temperature as electron-phonon energy transfer vanishes. Electron temperatures of up to 9000 K were deduced from optical spectroscopy of stable contacts. An important consequence of greatly reduced electron energy losses is that these atomic-size metal contacts have maximum current densities of similar to10(15) A m(-2), several orders of magnitude greater than for macroscopic wires. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.
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