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Tuning the conductance of a molecular switch

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 176–179 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The ability to control the conductance of single molecules will have a major impact in nanoscale electronics1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. Azobenzene, a molecule that changes conformation as a result of a trans/cis transition when exposed to radiation, could form the basis of a light-driven molecular switch12,13,14. It is therefore crucial to clarify the electrical transport characteristics of this molecule. Here, we investigate, theoretically, charge transport in a system in which a single azobenzene molecule is attached to two carbon nanotubes. In clear contrast to gold electrodes, the nanotubes can act as true nanoscale electrodes and we show that the low-energy conduction properties of the junction may be dramatically modified by changing the topology of the contacts between the nanotubes and the molecules, and/or the chirality of the nanotubes (that is, zigzag or armchair). We propose experiments to demonstrate controlled electrical switching with nanotube electrodes.

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Figure 1: Low-energy electronic states of azobenzene including the NHCO linkers.
Figure 2: Linear conductance at zero bias for a (5,5) armchair–trans(cis)–armchair junction.
Figure 3: Linear conductance at zero bias for a (9,0) zigzag–trans(cis)–zigzag junction.
Figure 4: Average conductance and current-voltage characteristics of the CNT–azobenzene junctions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Holleitner for making us aware of the details of the experiments being performed with azobenzene, and N. Nemec, D. Tomanek and R. de Vivie-Riedle for discussions and suggestions. This work was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation under grant No. I/78 340, by the DFG Priority Program “Quantum Transport at the Molecular Scale” SPP1243, by the MEC under contracts MAT2005-01388, NAN2004-09109-CO4-04, by the CAM under contract No. S-0505/ESP-0200, and by the European Union project “Carbon nanotube devices at the quantum limit” (CARDEQ) under contract No. IST-021285-2. M.d.V. acknowledges the support from the FPI Program of the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, D-93040, Germany

    Miriam del Valle, Rafael Gutiérrez & Gianaurelio Cuniberti

  2. Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, E-28049, Spain

    Miriam del Valle & Carlos Tejedor

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Correspondence to Gianaurelio Cuniberti.

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del Valle, M., Gutiérrez, R., Tejedor, C. et al. Tuning the conductance of a molecular switch. Nature Nanotech 2, 176–179 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.38

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