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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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Brooke, Carly, Vezzoli, Andrea, Higgins, Simon J., Zotti, Linda Ángela, Palacios Burgos, Juan José, Nichols, Richard J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/672670
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/672670
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.195438
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Transport resonance
Electrostatic effects
Fermi energy
Metal-molecule interface
Física
Descripción
Sumario: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