Electron Transport Through Single Fullerene Molecules (abstract)

Abstract

Fullerenes show potential for applications in nanotechnology due to the possibility of tuning their properties by doping or functionalization. In particular, the endohedral doping of the hollow carbon cage with metal atoms allows changing the electronic and magnetic properties of the molecule without distorting the geometry of the outer shell. Here we present a low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy study of the vibrational and transport properties of Ce2@C80 metallofullerenes. We observe that electron transport through the endohedral fullerene is strongly mediated by excitation of molecular vibrations, especially the dynamics of encapsulated atoms. We measure the conductance of the single‐molecule junction upon contact between the molecule and the STM tip. To determine the role of doping atoms we compare the results obtained for the endohedrally doped species with those for a hollow fullerene. Analysis shows that localization of electron density on encapsulated atoms hinders the conduction process through the fullerene.