Print Email Facebook Twitter Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics Title Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics Author Frisenda, R. Tarkuc, S. Galan, E. Perrin, M.L. Eelkema, R. Grozema, F.C. Van der Zant, H.S.J. Faculty Applied Sciences Department QN/Quantum Nanoscience Date 2015-07-17 Abstract We report on an experimental investigation of transport through single molecules, trapped between two gold nano-electrodes fabricated with the mechanically controlled break junction (MCBJ) technique. The four molecules studied share the same core structure, namely oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE3), while having different aurophilic anchoring groups: thiol (SAc), methyl sulfide (SMe), pyridyl (Py) and amine (NH2). The focus of this paper is on the combined characterization of the electrical and mechanical properties determined by the anchoring groups. From conductance histograms we find that thiol anchored molecules provide the highest conductance; a single-level model fit to current–voltage characteristics suggests that SAc groups exhibit a higher electronic coupling to the electrodes, together with better level alignment than the other three groups. An analysis of the mechanical stability, recording the lifetime in a self-breaking method, shows that Py and SAc yield the most stable junctions while SMe form short-lived junctions. Density functional theory combined with non-equlibrium Green’s function calculations help in elucidating the experimental findings. Subject anchoring groupscoherent transportcurrentvoltagemolecular electronicssingle molecule To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cb909dbf-8c38-404a-ae76-705af357b1ac Publisher Beilstein Institut ISSN 2190-4286 Source https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.6.159 Source Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, 6, 2015 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2015 The Author(s) Files PDF 320337.pdf 3.12 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:cb909dbf-8c38-404a-ae76-705af357b1ac/datastream/OBJ/view