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Mechanically controlled binary conductance switching of a single-molecule junction

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 230–234 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Molecular-scale components are expected to be central to the realization of nanoscale electronic devices1,2,3. Although molecular-scale switching has been reported in atomic quantum point contacts4,5,6, single-molecule junctions provide the additional flexibility of tuning the on/off conductance states through molecular design. To date, switching in single-molecule junctions has been attributed to changes in the conformation or charge state of the molecule7,8,9,10,11,12. Here, we demonstrate reversible binary switching in a single-molecule junction by mechanical control of the metal–molecule contact geometry. We show that 4,4'-bipyridine–gold single-molecule junctions can be reversibly switched between two conductance states through repeated junction elongation and compression. Using first-principles calculations, we attribute the different measured conductance states to distinct contact geometries at the flexible but stable nitrogen–gold bond: conductance is low when the N–Au bond is perpendicular to the conducting π-system, and high otherwise. This switching mechanism, inherent to the pyridine–gold link, could form the basis of a new class of mechanically activated single-molecule switches.

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Figure 1: Statistical analysis of measured conductance traces.
Figure 2: Controlled conductance switching by mechanical manipulation of gold–gold distances.
Figure 3: Calculated transmission characteristics as a function of the angle between the nitrogen–gold bond and the π*-system.
Figure 4: Results from conductance calculations on 55 relaxed junctions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Wiggins and P. Kim for discussions. Portions of this work were performed at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and were supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy. This work was supported in part by the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative of the NSF (award numbers CHE-0117752 and CHE-0641532), the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) and the NSF Career Award (CHE-07-44185) (M.K. and L.V.). This work was supported in part by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract number DE-AC02-98CH10886 (M.S.H.). H.J.C. acknowledges support from KISTI Supercomputing Center (KSC-2007-S00-1011). Computational resources from NERSC are acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    Su Ying Quek, Steven G. Louie & J. B. Neaton

  2. Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York 10027, USA

    Maria Kamenetska & Latha Venkataraman

  3. Center for Electron Transport in Nanostructures, Columbia University, New York 10027, USA

    Maria Kamenetska & Latha Venkataraman

  4. Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York 10027, USA

    Michael L. Steigerwald

  5. Department of Physics and IPAP, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

    Hyoung Joon Choi

  6. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Steven G. Louie

  7. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, 11973, Upton, USA

    Mark S. Hybertsen

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Correspondence to J. B. Neaton or Latha Venkataraman.

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Quek, S., Kamenetska, M., Steigerwald, M. et al. Mechanically controlled binary conductance switching of a single-molecule junction. Nature Nanotech 4, 230–234 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.10

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