The electron transport through molecules in molecular devices is typically influenced by the nature of the interfaces with the contacting electrodes and by the interactions between neighbouring molecules. It is a major goal of molecular electronics to adjust the electronic function of a molecular device by tailoring the intrinsic molecular properties and the interfacial and intermolecular inter...

In this letter, we propose a novel, ultrafast, efficient molecular switch whose switching mechanism involves the electric field-driven intramolecular proton transfer. By means of ab initio quantum chemical calculations and on-the-fly dynamics simulations, we examine the switching performance of an isolated salicylidene aniline molecule and analyze the perspectives of its possible use as an elec...

Using a scanning electron microscope, we make real-time movies of gold nanowires during the process of electromigration. We confirm the importance of using a small series resistance when employing electromigration to make controlled nanometer-scale gaps suitable for molecular-electronics studies. We are also able to estimate the effective temperature experienced by molecular adsorbates on the n...

The purpose of this paper is to study the gate field penetration and modulation of molecular channels by presenting field analysis results for different nanoscale geometry structure of SAMFETs. This kind of structure was originally studied by Hendrick Schön and Damle. We have performed numerical simulations in three terminals atomic scale device geometry field effect transistors (FETs), with Lc...

This article reviews the recent progress of fullerene-tethered oligothiophenes as advanced molecular electronics materials. By covalent linkage with fullerenes, oligothiophenes can be modified into intelligent functional materials. In addition to the characteristics of oligothiophenes as well as fullerenes, these linkage systems show intriguing physical properties such as photoinduced electron ...

Since the 1950s a lot of effort has been devoted into the development of organic conductors. By a substantial degree this has been inspired by W. A. Little’s theoretical analysis of London’s idea that superconductivity might occur in organic macromolecules or polymers [1]. Over time this has resulted in the discovery of several organic metals and superconductors, albeit not with spectacularly h...

Jacob E. Grose, Burak Ulgut, Abhay N. Pasupathy, Héctor D. Abruña, and Daniel C. Ralph Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY,14853, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853 *Corresponding Author. E-mail: [email protected] †Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics ‡Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biolo...

Transport fluctuations and variations in a series of metal-molecule-metal junctions were quantified through measurements of their thermopower. Thiol bound aromatic molecules of various lengths and degrees of freedom were chosen to understand the magnitude and origins of the variations. Junction thermopower was determined by measuring the voltage difference across molecules trapped between two g...

Molecules are the smallest possible elements for electronic devices, with active elements for such devices typically a few Angstroms in footprint area. Owing to the possibility of producing ultrahigh density devices, tremendous effort has been invested in producing electronic junctions by using various types of molecules. The major issues for molecular electronics include (1) developing an effe...