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Precision control of single-molecule electrical junctions

Abstract

There is much discussion of molecules as components for future electronic devices. However, the contacts, the local environment and the temperature can all affect their electrical properties. This sensitivity, particularly at the single-molecule level, may limit the use of molecules as active electrical components, and therefore it is important to design and evaluate molecular junctions with a robust and stable electrical response over a wide range of junction configurations and temperatures. Here we report an approach to monitor the electrical properties of single-molecule junctions, which involves precise control of the contact spacing and tilt angle of the molecule. Comparison with ab initio transport calculations shows that the tilt-angle dependence of the electrical conductance is a sensitive spectroscopic probe, providing information about the position of the Fermi energy. It is also shown that the electrical properties of flexible molecules are dependent on temperature, whereas those of molecules designed for their rigidity are not.

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Figure 1: Representation of the experimental procedures used to measure the electrical conductance of a single molecule at a well-defined contact separation.
Figure 2: Experimental results obtained for the conductance of molecule A on Au(111).
Figure 3: Single-molecule conductance.
Figure 4: Calculated electron-transport characteristics for molecule A contacted between two parallel Au(111) electrodes in three-fold hollow sites.
Figure 5: Surfaces of constant density of states for molecule A adsorbed to Au(111) for two different tilt angles.
Figure 6: Electrical conductance of molecule A calculated in dependence on the contact geometry.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by EPSRC (Mechanisms of Single Molecule Conductance) (Liverpool), Basic Technology (Controlled Electron Transport) (Durham and Lancaster) and a Lancaster–EPSRC Portfolio Partnership and MCRTN Fundamentals of Nanoelectronics.

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Haiss.

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Haiss, W., Wang, C., Grace, I. et al. Precision control of single-molecule electrical junctions. Nature Mater 5, 995–1002 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1781

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