We have developed the mechanically controllable break junction setup with an electrochemical cell (EC-MCBJ) to measure the electric conductance of metal nanowires under electrochemical potential control. The electric conductance of Au nanowires was investigated in 0.1 M Na 2 SO 4 solution using EC-MCBJ. The conductance of the Au nanowires was quantized in units of G 0 (=2e 2 /h), showing clear features in the conductance histogram. The atomic contact with a specific conductance value was kept for more than 5 sec, indicating the relatively high stability of the present EC-MCBJ system.

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Electric conductance of the Au nanowires was investigated in 0.1 M Na 2 S0 4 solution under electrochemical potential control using a mechanically controllable break junction setup with an electrochemical cell (EC-MCBJ). The conductance histogram exhibited a series of peaks, suggesting the existence of the stable diameter of the nanowires. Two different slopes were obtained in the plot of the stable diameter as a function of the peak index. The two slopes could be explained by the combination of the electronic and atomic shell effects. We could observe the shell structures in the conductance histogram of the Au nanowires under electrochemical potential control for the first time.

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