A physically realizable molecular motor driven by the Landauer blowtorch effect

Abstract

We propose a model for a molecular motor in a molecular electronic junction driven by a natural manifestation of Landauer’s blowtorch effect. The effect emerges via the interplay of electronic friction and diffusion coefficients, each calculated quantum mechanically using nonequilibrium Green’s functions, within a semiclassical Langevin description of the rotational dynamics. The motor functionality is analyzed through numerical simulations where the rotations exhibit a directional preference according to the intrinsic geometry of the molecular configuration. The proposed mechanism for motor function is expected to be ubiquitous for a range of molecular geometries beyond the one examined here.

How an electrical current can stabilize a molecular nanojunction

“…Conversely, q > 1 implies a larger coupling of the dissociated molecule to the leads, which suggests that the dissociated molecule is a better conductor. We note that we are not limited to the specifics of the model we consider here and applications to systems that display intermediate states or a torsion of the molecular backbone, which have been considered within the realm of molecular motors, [63][64][65] are interesting avenues for future work.…”