Diameter dependent failure current density of gold nanowires

Failure current density of single gold nanowires is investigated in this paper. Single wires with diameters ranging from 80 to 720 nm and length 30 mu m were electrochemically deposited in ion track-etched single-pore polycarbonate membranes. The maximum current density was investigated while keeping the wires embedded in the polymer matrix and ramping up the current until failure occurred. The current density is found to increase with diminishing diameter and the wires with a diameter of 80 nm withstand 1.2 x 10(12) A m(-2) before undergoing failure. Possible reasons for these results are discussed in this paper.