Reproducible measurement of single-molecule conductivity

Molecular logic circuits

Miniaturization has been an essential ingredient in the outstanding progress of information technology over the past fifty years. The next, perhaps ultimate, limit of miniaturization is that of molecules, which are the smallest entities with definite size, shape, and properties. Recently, great effort has been devoted to design and investigate molecular-level systems that are capable of transferring, processing, and storing information in binary form. Some of these nanoscale devices can, in fact, perform logic operations of remarkable complexity. This research--although far from being transferred into technology--is attracting interest, as the nanometer realm seems to be out of reach for the "top-down" techniques currently available to microelectronics industry. Moreover, such studies introduce new concepts in the "old" field of chemistry and stimulate the ingenuity of researchers engaged in the "bottom-up" approach to nanotechnology.

Insulating behavior of lambda-DNA on the micron scale

We have investigated the electrical conductivity of lambda-DNA using DNA covalently bonded to Au electrodes. Thiol-modified dTTP was incorporated into the "sticky" ends of bacteriophage lambda-DNA using DNA polymerase. Two-probe measurements on such molecules provide a hard lower bound for the resistivity rho>10(6)Omega cm at bias potentials up to 20 V, in conflict with recent claims of moderate to high conductivity. By direct imaging, we show that the molecules are present after the measurements. We stress the importance of eliminating salt residues in these measurements.

Effective insulating properties of autooxidized monolayers using organic ditellurides

Dialkyl ditellurides adsorb on Au(111) surfaces by wet deposition to form highly resistive autooxidized monolayers (AMs) due to the automatic formation of oxidized tellurium species after the adsorption of ditellurides on the surfaces under air in contrast to the case of the lighter dichalcogenides such as disulfides and diselenides. The ditelluride AMs could be applied to the selective fabrication of effective resistance, ferroelectric layers, piezoelectric parts, and/or new imaging systems using the feature of tellurium oxide in small device circuits.

Theory of rectification in tour wires: the role of electrode coupling

We report first-principles studies of electronic transport and rectification in molecular wires attached to gold electrodes. Our ab initio calculation gives an accurate description of the voltage drop as well as the broadening and alignment of the molecular levels in the metal-molecule-metal complex. We find that the operation range and rectification in such strongly chemisorbed molecules is limited by the width of the transmission resonances and their proximity to the Fermi level.

Metal-molecule contacts and charge transport across monomolecular layers: measurement and theory

Charge transport studies across molecular length scales under symmetric and asymmetric metal-molecule contact conditions using a simple crossed-wire tunnel junction technique are presented. It is demonstrated that oligo(phenylene ethynylene), a conjugated organic molecule, acts like a molecular wire under symmetric contact conditions, but exhibits characteristics of a molecular diode when the connections are asymmetric. To understand this behavior, we have calculated current-voltage (I-V) characteristics using extended Huckel theory coupled with a Green's function approach. The experimentally observed I-V characteristics are in excellent qualitative agreement with the theory.

Coulomb blockade and the Kondo effect in single-atom transistors

Using molecules as electronic components is a powerful new direction in the science and technology of nanometre-scale systems. Experiments to date have examined a multitude of molecules conducting in parallel, or, in some cases, transport through single molecules. The latter includes molecules probed in a two-terminal geometry using mechanically controlled break junctions or scanning probes as well as three-terminal single-molecule transistors made from carbon nanotubes, C(60) molecules, and conjugated molecules diluted in a less-conducting molecular layer. The ultimate limit would be a device where electrons hop on to, and off from, a single atom between two contacts. Here we describe transistors incorporating a transition-metal complex designed so that electron transport occurs through well-defined charge states of a single atom. We examine two related molecules containing a Co ion bonded to polypyridyl ligands, attached to insulating tethers of different lengths. Changing the length of the insulating tether alters the coupling of the ion to the electrodes, enabling the fabrication of devices that exhibit either single-electron phenomena, such as Coulomb blockade, or the Kondo effect.

Molecular wires acting as coherent quantum ratchets

The effect of laser fields on electron transport through a molecular wire weakly coupled to two leads is investigated. The molecular wire acts as a coherent quantum ratchet if the molecule is composed of periodically arranged, asymmetric chemical groups. This setup presents a quantum rectifier with a finite dc response in the absence of a static bias. The nonlinear current is evaluated in closed form within the Floquet basis of the isolated, driven wire. The current response reveals multiple current reversals together with a nonlinear dependence on the amplitude and the frequency of the laser field. The current saturates for long wires at a nonzero value, while it may change sign upon decreasing its length.

Conductance of small molecular junctions

A new method of fabricating small metal-molecule-metal junctions is developed, approaching the single-molecule limit. The conductance of different conjugated molecules in a broad temperature, source-drain, and gate voltage regime is reported. At low temperature, all investigated molecules display sharp conductance steps periodic in source-drain voltage. The position of these steps can be controlled by a gate potential. The spacing corresponds to the energy of the lowest molecular vibrations. These results show that the low-bias conductance of molecules is dominated by resonant tunneling through coupled electronic and vibration levels.

Template synthesis of metal nanowires containing monolayer molecular junctions

Metal nanowires containing in-wire monolayer junctions of 16-mercaptohexanoic acid were made by replication of the pores of 70 nm diameter polycarbonate track etch membranes. Au was electrochemically deposited halfway through the 6 microm long pores and a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid was adsorbed on top. A thin layer of Au was then electrolessly grown to form a metal cap separated from the bottom part of the wire by the SAM. Electron micrographs showed that the bottom and top metal segments were separated by an approximately 2 nm thick organic monolayer. Current-voltage measurements of individual nanowires confirmed that the organic monolayer could be contacted electrically on the top and bottom by the metal nanowire segments without introducing electrical short circuits that penetrate the monolayer. The values of the electrical properties for zero-bias resistance, current density, and breakdown field strength were within the ranges expected for a well-ordered alkanethiol SAM of this thickness.

Organic molecules acting as templates on metal surfaces

The electronic connection of single molecules to nanoelectrodes on a surface is a basic, unsolved problem in the emerging field of molecular nanoelectronics. By means of variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, we show that an organic molecule (C90H98), known as the Lander, can cause the rearrangement of atoms on a Cu(110) surface. These molecules act as templates accommodating metal atoms at the step edges of the copper substrate, forming metallic nanostructures (0.75 nanometers wide and 1.85 nanometers long) that are adapted to the dimensions of the molecule.

Molecular electronics. It's all about contacts

A key requirement in molecular electronics studies is the ability to measure the conductivity of a single molecule. But as Hipps explains in his Perspective, such measurements are often more about contacts than about molecular conductivity. Depending on the experimental setup, DNA behaves like a semiconductor, insulator, or metal. Cui et al. have designed a method that overcomes some of these problems, opening the door to systematic, reliable, and reproducible studies of the molecule-contact interface.