From favorable atomic configurations to supershell structures: A new interpretation of conductance histograms

Minimum cross-section histograms for Al nanowire breaking molecular dynamic (MD) simulations using state-of-the-art EAM potentials were obtained to describe Al-Al interactions. At low temperatures, it was found that there exists favorable atomic arrangements. For increasing temperatures, the system explored more atomic configurations where low conductance regions show less structure, and well-defined high stability regions appeared for higher conductance values.