SINGLE-ATOM POINT CONTACTS IN THE SUPERCONDUCTING STATE

Recently it has become possible to fabricate long-term stable point contacts with a constriction as small as a single atom. Here we present experimental investigations on one-atom point contacts in the superconducting state. An applied pressure or tensile force on this atom results in large effects in the superconducting properties. Furthermore, we show that one-atom point contacts can be broken and reestablished in a perfectly reproducible manner. © 1994 The American Physical Society.