Are conductance plateaus independent events in atomic point contact   measurements ? A statistical approach
  Room temperature conductance-elongation curves of gold atomic wires are measured using a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope Break Junction technique. Landauer's conductance plateaus are individually identified and statistically analysed. Both the probabilities to observe, and the lengths of the two last plateaus (at conductance values close to 2e2/h and 4e2/h) are studied. All results converge to show that the occurrence of these two conductance plateaus on a conductance-elongation curve are statistically independent events. 
Thomas Leoni, Sabrina Homri, Remi Zoubkoff, Nadine Candoni, Petar   Vidakovic, Alain Ranguis, Hubert Klein, Andres Saul and ...