Tuning Charge Transport in Aromatic‐Ring Single‐Molecule Junctions via Ionic‐Liquid Gating

Abstract

AbstractAchieving gate control with atomic precision, which is crucial to the transistor performance on the smallest scale, remains a challenge. Herein we report a new class of aromatic‐ring molecular nanotransistors based on graphene–molecule–graphene single‐molecule junctions by using an ionic‐liquid gate. Experimental phenomena and theoretical calculations confirm that this ionic‐liquid gate can effectively modulate the alignment between molecular frontier orbitals and the Fermi energy level of graphene electrodes, thus tuning the charge‐transport properties of the junctions. In addition, with a small gate voltage (|VG|≤1.5 V) ambipolar charge transport in electrochemically inactive molecular systems (EG>3.5 eV) is realized. These results offer a useful way to build high‐performance single‐molecule transistors, thus promoting the prospects for molecularly engineered electronic devices.