WORK PUBLISHED IN NATURE COMMUNICATIONS and SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Understanding how the mechanism of charge transport through molecular tunnel junctions depends on temperature is crucial to control electronic function in molecular electronic devices. So far only a few systems have been investigated as a function of bias and temperature and, consequently, thermal effects in molecular tunnel junctions are still poorly understood. Here we report a detailed charge transport study of an individual redox-active molecule (based on ferrocene) over a wide range of temperatures and applied potentials. The results show the temperature dependence of the current to vary strongly as a function of the gate voltage. Specifically, the current across the molecule: i) exponentially increases in the Coulomb blockade regime; ii) decreases at the charge degeneracy points; and, iii) remains constant with temperature at resonance. Our observations can be well accounted for by a formal single-level tunneling model where the temperature dependence relies on the thermal broadening of the Fermi distributions of the electrons in the leads. A detailed analysis of these physics and interpretation of results in different kind of tunnel junctions can be found in the extended report in Scientific Reports.
References:
A. R. Garrigues, L. Yuan, L. Wang, E. R. Mucciolo, D. Thompson, E. del Barco, and C. A. Nijhuis
“Electrostatic Control over Temperature-Dependent Tunneling across a Single Molecule Junction”
Nat. Commun. 7, 11595 (2016)
A. R. Garrigues, L. Yuan, L. Wang, E. R. Mucciolo, D. Thompson, E. del Barco, and C. A. Nijhuis
“A Single-Level Tunnel Model to Account for Electrical Transport through Single Molecule- and Self-Assembled Monolayer-based Junctions”
Sci. Rep. 6, 26517 (2016)
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