  This article reports on the influence of laser irradiation onto the
electrical conductance of gold nanocontacts established with the mechanically
controllable breakjunction technique (MCB). We concentrate here on the study of
reversible conductance changes which can be as high as 200%. We investigate the
dependence on the initial conductance of the contacts, the wavelength, the
intensity and position of the laser spot with respect to the sample. Under most
conditions an enhancement of the conductance is observed. We discuss several
physical mechanisms which might contribute to the observed effect including
thermal expansion, rectification and photon-assisted transport. We conclude
that thermal expansion is not the dominating one.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics