Measurement of electron transport properties of single molecules

Xiulan Li, Bingqian Xu, Xiaoyin Xiao, Joshua Hihath, Nongjian Tao

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The conductance of a single molecule covalently connected to two gold electrodes can be determined by the statistical analysis of many repeatedly created gold-molecule-gold junctions. Conductance histograms reveal well-defined peaks at integer multiples of a fundamental conductance, which is used to identify the average conductance of a single molecule. The large width of the peaks indicates considerable variations in conductance of individual molecular junctions due to difference in the microscopic details of molecule-electrode contacts. Using the method, electron transport properties of a variety of molecules, from N-alkanedithiol molecules to DNA duplexes, have been studied.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5344-5347
Number of pages4
JournalJapanese Journal of Applied Physics, Part 1: Regular Papers and Short Notes and Review Papers
Volume44
Issue number7 B
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 26 2005

Keywords

  • Molecular conductance
  • Molecular electronics
  • Molecular junction
  • Molecular resistance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Engineering(all)
  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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