Electronic conduction during the formation stages of a single-molecule junction

• Atindra Nath Pal,
• Tal Klein,
• Ayelet Vilan and
• Oren Tal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1471–1477, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.138

• , was greatly facilitated by the development of the mechanically controllable break junction technique [3]. In a break junction (Figure 1a), molecules are introduced to a metallic junction while it is stretched. As a result, the junction is thinned to an atomic scale contact and eventually it breaks to

• scenarios of structural evolution from premature junction configurations towards the formation of a typical metal–molecule–metal junction, bringing to light the early steps of single-molecule junction formation. Experimental We use the mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) technique [3] to

• -molecule junctions will pave the way for directed formation of desired molecular junction structures by controlling their structural evolution. (a) Schematic of a mechanically controllable break junction device. Inset: Schematic of a vanadocene molecule and a broken junction. (b) Schematic illustration of

Role of solvents in the electronic transport properties of single-molecule junctions

• Katharina Luka-Guth,
• Sebastian Hambsch,
• Andreas Bloch,
• Philipp Ehrenreich,
• Bernd Michael Briechle,
• Filip Kilibarda,
• Torsten Sendler,
• Dmytro Sysoiev,
• Thomas Huhn,
• Artur Erbe and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1055–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.99

• contacts, or even two fine tips when applying the mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) technique [26][27][28]. Also, when using planar electrodes, e.g., in the electromigration technique [29], the very ends show features with corrugations of atomic size. The typical voltage applied when

• controllable break junction; molecular electronics; polar solvent; single-molecule junctions; Introduction The electronic transport properties of single-molecule junctions are actively investigated with the aim to utilize such junctions as functional building blocks in electronic devices [1][2][3][4][5][6][7

• exposed to the solvent may also be considered. While the lifetime aspect is shortly addressed in our work, a comprehensive study of all these aspects is beyond the scope of this article. Conclusion We have investigated charge transport through tunnel contacts formed by the mechanically controllable break

Thermo-voltage measurements of atomic contacts at low temperature

• Ayelet Ofarim,
• Bastian Kopp,
• Thomas Möller,
• León Martin,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 767–775, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.68

• atomic-sized gold contacts at low temperature. For these measurements a mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) system is used and a laser source generates a temperature difference of a few kelvins across the junction to create a thermo-voltage. Since the temperature difference enters directly

• controllable break-junction; temperature determination; thermopower; Introduction The energy and heat management in electronic devices has become a challenge in recent years due to the down-scaling of electronic components to the nanoscale, where the transport is governed by quantum-mechanical properties

• measurement of the resistance change due to laser heating of sensor leads on both sides next to the junction. Our results for the measured thermopower are in agreement with recent reports in the literature. Keywords: atomic contacts; finite element simulations; laser heating; low temperature; mechanically

Probing the local environment of a single OPE3 molecule using inelastic tunneling electron spectroscopy

• Riccardo Frisenda,
• Mickael L. Perrin and
• Herre S. J. van der Zant

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2477–2484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.257

• tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). The molecule is contacted with gold nano-electrodes formed with the mechanically controllable break junction technique. We record the IETS spectrum of the molecule from direct current measurements, both as a function of time and electrode separation. We find that for fixed

• electrodes when describing inelastic contributions to transport through single-molecule junctions. Keywords: current–voltage characteristics; DFT calculations; mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ); molecule–electrode interaction; vibrational modes; Introduction Vibrational degrees of freedom in

Vibration-mediated Kondo transport in molecular junctions: conductance evolution during mechanical stretching

• David Rakhmilevitch and
• Oren Tal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2417–2422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.249

• vibration energy. However, further stretching weakens the molecule–electrode binding, resulting in a decrease in vibration energy [26][27][28]. Experimental Ag/CuPc molecular junctions were constructed using a mechanically controllable break junction [30] (Figure 1b) at 4.2 K. A notch was cut in the middle

• absence of a zero-bias Kondo effect. (b) Schematic representation of a mechanically controllable break junction device. (a) Differential conductance curves measured during the elongation process of the junction. The red lines are a guide to the eye outlining the changing trend of the voltage shift of the

Evidence for non-conservative current-induced forces in the breaking of Au and Pt atomic chains

• Carlos Sabater,
• Carlos Untiedt and
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2338–2344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.241

• the experimental techniques we refer to Smit et al. [10]. Briefly, the experiment is based on the formation of chains of metal atoms by the mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) technique [11][12]. As schematically illustrated in Figure 1 we start from a macroscopic metallic wire that is

Conductance through single biphenyl molecules: symmetric and asymmetric coupling to electrodes

• Karthiga Kanthasamy and
• Herbert Pfnür

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1690–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.171

• molecules while only a few experiments [6][25][26][27] have been done with molecules with asymmetric end groups and contacts. One technique widely used for studying transport through single or few molecules is the mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ), which can be used in different environments

Current–voltage characteristics of single-molecule diarylethene junctions measured with adjustable gold electrodes in solution

• Bernd M. Briechle,
• Youngsang Kim,
• Philipp Ehrenreich,
• Artur Erbe,
• Dmytro Sysoiev,
• Thomas Huhn,
• Ulrich Groth and
• Elke Scheer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 798–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.89

• : diarylethene; mechanically controllable break-junction; molecular electronics; photoswitching; single-molecule junctions; Introduction Charge transport in single-molecule devices is actively investigated with the aim to realize functional electronic circuits [1][2][3][4], such as switches [5], transistors [4

Effect of the environment on the electrical conductance of the single benzene-1,4-diamine molecule junction

• Shigeto Nakashima,
• Yuuta Takahashi and
• Manabu Kiguchi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 755–759, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.83

• (single-molecule junction) have attracted much attention toward the realization of molecular scale electronics [1][2]. Electrical conductance of the single-molecule junction was investigated by means of mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ), scanning tunneling microscope (STM), and other

Charge transport in a zinc–porphyrin single-molecule junction

• Mickael L. Perrin,
• Christian A. Martin,
• Ferry Prins,
• Ahson J. Shaikh,
• Rienk Eelkema,
• Jan H. van Esch,
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek,
• Herre S. J. van der Zant and
• Diana Dulić

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 714–719, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.77

• )porphyrin) molecular junctions using the lithographic mechanically controllable break-junction (MCBJ) technique at room temperature and cryogenic temperature (6 K). We combined low-bias statistical measurements with spectroscopy of the molecular levels in the form of I(V) characteristics. This combination

• interpreted with care, and that the combination with I(V) spectroscopy represents an essential tool for a more detailed characterization of the charge transport in a single molecule. Keywords: mechanically controllable break junction; molecular conformation; molecular electronics; porphyrin; single-molecule

• -bias and the high-bias regime. Porphyrins are interesting for this purpose as they are complex, non-rodlike molecules, which can form different stable conformations [7][8], especially when functionalized with metal-bound axial pyridine ligands [9]. Using the mechanically controllable break-junction