  The localization lengths of ultrathin disordered Au and Ag nanowires are
estimated by calculating the wire conductances as functions of wire lengths. We
study Ag and Au monoatomic linear chains, and thicker Ag wires with very small
cross sections. For the monoatomic chains we consider two types of disorder:
bounded random fluctuations of the interatomic distances, and the presence of
random substitutional impurities. The effect of impurity atoms on the nanowire
conductance is much stronger. Our results show that electrical transport in
ultrathin disordered wires may occur in the strong localization regime, and
with relatively small amounts of disorder the localization lengths may be
rather small. The localization length dependence on wire thickness is
investigated for Ag nanowires with different impurity concentrations.
