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Detection of heating in current-carrying molecular junctions by Raman scattering

Nature Nanotechnology volume 3, pages 727–732 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

As the scaling of electronic components continues, local heating will have an increasing influence on the stability and performance of nanoscale electronic devices. In particular, the low heat capacity of molecular junctions means that it will be essential to understand local heating and heat conduction in these junctions1,2,3,4. Here we report a method for directly monitoring the effective temperature of current-carrying junctions with surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) that involves measuring both the Stokes and anti-Stokes components of the Raman scattering. All the Raman-active modes in our system show similar heating as a function of bias at room temperature, which suggests fast vibrational relaxation processes inside the junctions. These results demonstrate the power of direct spectroscopic probing of heating and cooling processes in nanostructures.

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Figure 1: Experimental setup and conductance characteristics of the junctions.
Figure 2: Raman spectra and maps of a junction.
Figure 3: Teff(ν) as a function of bias for two representative junctions.
Figure 4: Schematic model of a charge-transfer Raman scattering process.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Nitzan from TAU for very insightful discussions. Support by the GIF young scientist program for Y.S. is gratefully acknowledged. T.S. thanks the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology for an Eshkol fellowship. The research was supported by the Israel Science foundation under grant no. 987/05 (OC).

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  1. Zvi Ioffe and Tamar Shamai: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Zvi Ioffe, Tamar Shamai, Ayelet Ophir, Gilad Noy, Ilan Yutsis, Kobi Kfir, Ori Cheshnovsky & Yoram Selzer

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  1. Zvi Ioffe
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Correspondence to Ori Cheshnovsky or Yoram Selzer.

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Ioffe, Z., Shamai, T., Ophir, A. et al. Detection of heating in current-carrying molecular junctions by Raman scattering. Nature Nanotech 3, 727–732 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.304

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