An approach based on the free-electron theory to calculate electron conductance of perfect metallic nanowires

For the first time, the quantum free-electron theory is utilized for determining the quantized electrical conductance in a perfect metallic multi-atom nanowire. In this formulation, both spin-up and spin-down conduction electrons are considered so that our final result comes from a series combination of the contributions to the conductance from the two possible types of spin-oriented electron, assuming a symmetric distribution of the involved counter-ions. In addition, several aspects related to the atom-lead coupling are discussed.