Breaking Force and Conductance of Gold Nanojunctions: Effect of Humidity

Forces acting on elongated gold nanojunctions and their electric conductance were simultaneously measured by current-sensing force spectroscopy in an atmosphere with controlled humidity. The breaking force of thick nanojunctions with conductance >20G(0) is not affected by the environmental humidity. The presence of ambient water stabilizes thin nanojunctions with conductance <15G(0), whose breaking force of 10-15 nN was higher than that in a dry atmosphere due to the capillary forces. The observed effect of humidity would not be possible to distinguish by techniques measuring only forces or only conductance in nanojunctions.