First-principles calculation of transport properties of single-row aluminium nanowires suspended between semi-infinite crystalline electrodes

We present first-principles calculations based on the density-functional theory for electronic structures and conductances of single-row aluminium nanowires attached to semi-infinite crystalline electrodes. The nanowire does not exhibit conductance quantization, which is consistent with experiments. The resultant conductance of is in agreement with that of other first-principles studies. The transmissions and the local density of states sensitively vary depending on the energy of incident electrons, which supports more irregular conductance of the aluminium nanowire than those of gold and other monovalent metals.