Single-Molecule Electronics: Chemical and Analytical Perspectives

Nichols, Richard J.; Higgins, Simon J.

doi:10.1146/annurev-anchem-071114-040118

Cited by 81 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 133 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The interested reader is directed to excellent reviews in this field [91,[101][102][103]. Studying redox active macromolecules is less common, however, recently few studies appeared in literature describing single molecule experiments of macromolecules.…”

Section: Single Molecule Electrochemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical techniques for investigating redox active macromolecules

Izquierdo

Kranz

2016

European Polymer Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Single Molecule Electrochemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical techniques for investigating redox active macromolecules

Izquierdo

Kranz

2016

European Polymer Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…To realize the successful miniaturization of nanoelectronic devices, single-molecule junctions have widely been studied [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] over the years at various levels from molecular imaging to molecular manipulation. Quantum transport properties of these junctions help us in understanding their obscure behavior by shedding light on various structurefunction relationships that are often central to molecular electronics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conformation controllable inelastic charge transport and shot noise behavior in metal-string single molecular devices

Roy

Sen

2020

Applied Surface Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is often intriguing experimentally to take stock of how conformational changes in the device configuration may impact the overall charge transport behavior of single-molecule junctions. Based on the allied approach of density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we explore here the effect of junction heterogeneity on inelastic charge transport in various metal-string based single-molecule devices. The constituent active elements being sensitive to the resonant levels, transition metal centers are found to influence stretching, bending, and torsional excitation modes, while rocking and scissoring modes are controlled largely by the axial ligands. For certain molecular conformations and electrode orientations, phonon-assisted quantum interference effect may crop up, leading to the suppression of higher wavenumber vibrational modes. The resulting inelastic spectra are likely to take the shape of dominant Fano resonance or anti-resonance, depending on whether phonons are emitted or absorbed. Such nanoscale quantum interference effect is manifested especially in those metal-string molecular junctions for which the energy gap (between localized and delocalized virtual states) lies well within the optical phonon energies (∆E |HOM O−LU M O| < 40 meV). It also turns out that single molecular shot noise can exhibit nearly Poissonian behavior if the inter-channel tunneling through frontier orbitals is accompanied by phonon absorption or emission following a slow relaxation process. Our results thus suggest that charge transport properties across metal-string complexes can be potentially tuned by selective architecture of the metal centers and also, by preferred orientation of nanoscale electrodes in a bid to build up molecular devices with desirable controllability.

show abstract

“…Among the most commonly used methods today are the so-called scanning tunnelling microscopy break junction (STM-BJ), I(s) and I(t) (sometimes referred to as the STM "blinking" or "telegraph noise") methods. [1][2][3][4][5][6] The vast majority of studies have used gold substrates and STM tips. In the STM-BJ method, the STM tip is pushed into the substrate in the presence of a solution of target molecules, terminated at each end with a suitable contact group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft versus hard junction formation for α-terthiophene molecular wires and their charge transfer complexes

Vezzoli

Grace

Brooke

et al. 2016

The Journal of Chemical Physics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We used a range of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM)-based methods to conduct a detailed study of single molecule junction conductance enhancement upon charge transfer complex formation, using bis(thiaalkyl)arene molecular wires as electron donors and tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) as an electron acceptor. Using the "hard" STM break junction (STM-BJ) method, in which a Au STM tip is pushed into a Au substrate and then withdrawn in the presence of molecules, we see a single, very broad, peak in the resulting conductance histogram when all data are used; the conductance enhancement is 25-fold for a terthiophene donor and 15-fold for a phenyl group. After rational data selection, in which only current-distance curves that contain a current plateau >0.2 nm long are used in the conductance histogram, three sharper peaks are resolved in the histograms for the charge transfer complexes; two substantially lower-conductance peaks are resolved for the uncomplexed molecules. Using the "soft" STM I(s) technique, in which initial contact between tip and substrate is avoided and the current limit is about an order of magnitude lower, we were able to resolve two peaks for the uncomplexed molecules depending upon the initial set point current (i.e., tip height), one at the same value as the lower of the two data-selected STM-BJ histogram peaks and an additional peak beyond the low-current limit for the STM-BJ experiment. For the terthiophene, the low, medium, and high conductance peaks for the TCNE complex are, respectively, ca. 70, 70, and 46 times higher in conductance than the corresponding peaks for the free molecule.

show abstract

Single-Molecule Electronics: Chemical and Analytical Perspectives

Cited by 81 publications

References 133 publications

Electrochemical techniques for investigating redox active macromolecules

Electrochemical techniques for investigating redox active macromolecules

Conformation controllable inelastic charge transport and shot noise behavior in metal-string single molecular devices

Soft versus hard junction formation for α-terthiophene molecular wires and their charge transfer complexes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About