CONDUCTANCE QUANTIZATION AT ROOM-TEMPERATURE IN MAGNETIC AND NONMAGNETIC METALLIC NANOWIRES

This paper shows that conductance quantization at room temperature is a physical and reliable observation. This is demonstrated by conductan ce histograms taking all (12 000) consecutive nanowire conductance exp eriments in Au at room temperature. On the other hand, conductance cur ves in Ni, a room-temperature ferromagnet, show staircase-quantized be havior, but the histograms do not show quantized peaks, most probably due to the lifting of the spin degeneracy.