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Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction

Understanding how the mechanism of charge transport through molecular tunnel junctions depends on temperature is crucial to control electronic function in molecular electronic devices. With just a few systems investigated as a function of bias and temperature so far, thermal effects in molecular tun...

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Autores principales: Garrigues, Alvar R., Wang, Lejia, del Barco, Enrique, Nijhuis, Christian A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879245/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27211787
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11595
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author Garrigues, Alvar R.
Wang, Lejia
del Barco, Enrique
Nijhuis, Christian A.
author_facet Garrigues, Alvar R.
Wang, Lejia
del Barco, Enrique
Nijhuis, Christian A.
author_sort Garrigues, Alvar R.
collection PubMed
description Understanding how the mechanism of charge transport through molecular tunnel junctions depends on temperature is crucial to control electronic function in molecular electronic devices. With just a few systems investigated as a function of bias and temperature so far, thermal effects in molecular tunnel junctions remain poorly understood. Here we report a detailed charge transport study of an individual redox-active ferrocene-based molecule 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 exponentially increases in the Coulomb blockade regime and decreases at the charge degeneracy points, while remaining temperature-independent at resonance. Our observations can be well accounted for by a formal single-level tunnelling model where the temperature dependence relies on the thermal broadening of the Fermi distributions of the electrons in the leads.
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spelling pubmed-48792452016-06-02 Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction Garrigues, Alvar R. Wang, Lejia del Barco, Enrique Nijhuis, Christian A. Nat Commun Article Understanding how the mechanism of charge transport through molecular tunnel junctions depends on temperature is crucial to control electronic function in molecular electronic devices. With just a few systems investigated as a function of bias and temperature so far, thermal effects in molecular tunnel junctions remain poorly understood. Here we report a detailed charge transport study of an individual redox-active ferrocene-based molecule 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 exponentially increases in the Coulomb blockade regime and decreases at the charge degeneracy points, while remaining temperature-independent at resonance. Our observations can be well accounted for by a formal single-level tunnelling model where the temperature dependence relies on the thermal broadening of the Fermi distributions of the electrons in the leads. Nature Publishing Group 2016-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4879245/ /pubmed/27211787 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11595 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Garrigues, Alvar R.
Wang, Lejia
del Barco, Enrique
Nijhuis, Christian A.
Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
title Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
title_full Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
title_fullStr Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
title_full_unstemmed Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
title_short Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
title_sort electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879245/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27211787
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11595
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