Abstract
The contacts and the chemical bonds formed between metallic electrodes and molecules determine to a large extent the conductive properties of single molecular junctions, which represent the smallest possible active elements in an electronic circuit. We therefore investigated in a comparative study, using the break junction technique (MCBJ), the conductive properties of [1,1’-biphenyl]-4,4’-dithiol (M1) and of 4’-mercapto-[1,1’-biphenyl]-4-carbonitrile (M2) between gold electrodes. As a function of electrode separation, characterized by the conductance close to 0 V, we found several plateaus of relative stability, with those close to 0.01G0 being the most pronounced. The overall conductance of symmetric and asymmetric molecules were surprisingly similar, only the range of stability was smaller for M2. While M1 yielded symmetric I–V-curves, only small asymmetries were detected for M2. These are also reflected in the comparable values for coupling parameters using the single level resonance model. The high conductance for the asymmetric molecule is interpreted as a result of coherent coupling of electronic states through the whole molecule, so that the outcome cannot be predicted just by adding conductive properties of individual molecular groups.
Highlights
The ultimate goal of molecular electronics is to implement single molecules as active functional elements in future electronic devices such as amplifiers, rectifiers, diodes and logic switches [1]
Two decades after the proposal from Aviram and Ratner describing the molecular junction as p-n diodes [2] the experimental research in the field of molecular electronics [3]
With the mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) we use a few droplets of molecular solution
Summary
The ultimate goal of molecular electronics is to implement single molecules as active functional elements in future electronic devices such as amplifiers, rectifiers, diodes and logic switches [1]. Starting with [1,1’-biphenyl]-4,4’-dithiol as a reference, we compare the conducting properties with those of the asymmetric molecule with one thiol and one carbonitrile end group.
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