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

• other solvents. Plateaus are signatures of the formation of molecular contacts. Here they occur in particular at small opening distance, in agreement with the small size of the solvent molecules. The lowest conductance value that we are able to detect is around 10−9G0 in agreement with reports from

• ][12][16][17][27][34][35][36][41]. Here we chose a wider range to ensure that all solvent contacts that could be mistaken for molecular contacts are detected. The values extracted from fitting to the SLM for all solvents are plotted in Figure 5 and those to the SM in Figure 6 as a function of the

• vacuum chamber of a reactive ion etcher in order to form a free-standing bridge [26][28]. Break junction setup for measurements of molecular contacts in solution As described in [11], the samples are mounted onto the three-point bending mechanism shown in Figure 8. The electrodes are contacted by

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

• and M2 molecules. Conductance values close to and above 1G0 are obviously characteristic of direct metallic contacts between the electrodes, which presumably exist in parallel to molecular contacts. As can be seen from the left part of Figure 3, the conductance changes stepwise with the motion of the

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

• employing O2 plasma in the vacuum chamber of a reactive ion etcher, in order to form a free-standing bridge [51][52]. Break-junction setup for measurements of molecular contacts in solution The samples were mounted onto the three-point bending mechanism shown in Figure 6. The electrodes were contacted by

Strong spin-filtering and spin-valve effects in a molecular V–C₆₀–V contact

• Mohammad Koleini and
• Mads Brandbyge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 589–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.69

• transmissions in the conductance channels as demonstrated for molecular contacts [35][36]. In Figure 5c, we observe how the noise is significantly smaller for the FM configuration and drops already well before contact (d − deq ≈ 1.5 Å) is established. Since the shot noise in the FM case is low in contact, while

Current-induced dynamics in carbon atomic contacts

• Jing-Tao Lü,
• Tue Gunst,
• Per Hedegård and
• Mads Brandbyge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 814–823, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.90

• used to explore current-induced dynamics and instabilities. We find instabilities at experimentally relevant bias and gate voltages for the carbon-chain system. Keywords: carbon-nanoelectronics; current-induced forces; molecular contacts; nanoscale Joule heating; semiclassical Langevin equation

• , recently it was pointed out [5][6][7][8] that other current-induced forces can play a role. For instance, in the case of molecular contacts with conductance on the order of G0 = 2e2/h = 1/12.9 kΩ (e being the electron charge and h Planck’s constant), and under “high” bias voltage (~1 V), the current

• show how the current-induced effects could be investigated in molecular contacts connecting gated graphene or nanotube electrodes. Graphene is now being explored very extensively due to its outstanding electrical and thermal transport properties [10][11][12]. Besides being highly important in their own

Charge transfer through single molecule contacts: How reliable are rate descriptions?

• Denis Kast,
• L. Kecke and
• J. Ankerhold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 416–426, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.47

• molecular electronics in the last decade. However, a theoretical description of molecular contacts as the building blocks of future devices is challenging, as it has to combine the properties of Fermi liquids in the leads with charge and phonon degrees of freedom on the molecule. Outside of ab initio

• ; molecular contacts; nonequilibrium distributions; numerical simulations; rate equations; Introduction Electrical devices on the nanoscale have received substantial interest in the last decade [1]. Impressive progress has been achieved in contacting single molecules or molecular aggregates with conducting

• sufficiently weak [15]. Physically, it places charge transfer through molecular contacts in the context of inelastic charge transfer through ultrasmall metallic contacts (dynamical Coulomb blockade [17]) and in the context of solvent or vibronic mediated intramolecular charge transfer (Marcus theory) [18][19