Electronic transport in 1D system with coupling atomic-size nickel electrodes and carbon wires.

• Carbon atoms coupled to one-dimensional atomic size Nickel electrodes. • Electronic transport exhibits difference in parity at carbon atoms. • Even carbon chains exhibit NDR effect. • Even chains can be used as RTDs and odd chains FETs. • Double current range for even chains. We have investigated the electronic transport using ab initio/Non-Equilibrium Green's Function methodology through one-dimensional (1D) junctions with atomic-size diameter based on carbon chains C n (n from 1 to 10) between semi-infinite Ni electrodes. Our findings for cumulene- or polyyne-type carbyne, odd ( C 2 n + 1 ) and even ( C 2 n ) chains, are: (i) maximum conductance is reached at same bias (0.20 V) for both parities; (ii) conductance decrease to polyyne chains (from 151 μ S to 125 μ S) and increase for cumulene chains (from 58 μ S to 68 μ S); (iii) the transmittance for C 2 n ≈ 2 × C 2 n + 1 provoking high C 2 n current; (iv) drop in conductance for both chains showing no transmittance (| 0.25 | V); (v) negative differential resistance (NDR) is shown for C 2 n (2 to 4) at | 0.35 | V and C 10 at | 0.40 | V due to degenerecency of few LUMO's levels while C 2 n + 1 exhibit resonance at | 0.30 | V ; (vi) RTD (Resonant tunnel diode) and FET (Field effect transistor) behavior for C 2 n and C 2 n + 1 , respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]