Resonant transport and electrostatic effects in single-molecule electrical junctions

In this contribution we demonstrate structural control over a transport resonance in HS(CH2)n[1,4 −C6H4](CH2)nSH (n = 1, 3, 4, 6) metal-molecule-metal junctions, fabricated and tested using the scanning tunnelingmicroscopy-based I (z)method. The Breit-Wigner resonance originates from one of the aren...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Brooke, Carly, Vezzoli, Andrea, Higgins, Simon J., Zotti, Linda Ángela, Palacios Burgos, Juan José, Nichols, Richard J.
Format: article
Publication Date:2015
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repository:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/672670
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/672670
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.195438
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Transport resonance
Electrostatic effects
Fermi energy
Metal-molecule interface
Física
Description
Summary:In this contribution we demonstrate structural control over a transport resonance in HS(CH2)n[1,4 −C6H4](CH2)nSH (n = 1, 3, 4, 6) metal-molecule-metal junctions, fabricated and tested using the scanning tunnelingmicroscopy-based I (z)method. The Breit-Wigner resonance originates from one of the arene π-bonding orbitals, which sharpens and moves closer to the contact Fermi energy as n increases. Varying the number of methylene groups thus leads to a very shallow decay of the conductance with the length of the molecule. We demonstrate that the electrical behavior observed here can be straightforwardly rationalized by analyzing the effects caused by the electrostatic balance created at the metal-molecule interface. Such resonances offer future prospects in molecular electronics in terms of controlling charge transport over longer distances, and also in single-molecule conductance switching if the resonances can be externally gated