Reproducible measurement of single-molecule conductivity

Batch fabrication of gold-gold nanogaps by E-beam lithography and electrochemical deposition

We report on the successful development of a well-controlled two-step batch nano-fabrication process to achieve nanometer-size gaps at the wafer scale. The technique is based on an optimized electron-beam lithography process, which enables the fabrication of nanogaps in the range (15 ± 4) nm. Following this first step, the feedback-controlled electrochemical deposition of gold from an aqueous HAuCl4-based electrolyte is applied to further reduce the size of the gap down to about 0.3-1.0 nm. This protocol was successfully demonstrated by fabricating more than 385 nanogaps on a 4 inch wafer. The reproducible fabrication of nanogaps in the range between 0.3 and 1.0 nm opens up new perspectives for addressing the electrical and reactivity properties of single molecules and clusters in confined space under well-controlled conditions.

Single-molecule junctions beyond electronic transport

The idea of using individual molecules as active electronic components provided the impetus to develop a variety of experimental platforms to probe their electronic transport properties. Among these, single-molecule junctions in a metal-molecule-metal motif have contributed significantly to our fundamental understanding of the principles required to realize molecular-scale electronic components from resistive wires to reversible switches. The success of these techniques and the growing interest of other disciplines in single-molecule-level characterization are prompting new approaches to investigate metal-molecule-metal junctions with multiple probes. Going beyond electronic transport characterization, these new studies are highlighting both the fundamental and applied aspects of mechanical, optical and thermoelectric properties at the atomic and molecular scales. Furthermore, experimental demonstrations of quantum interference and manipulation of electronic and nuclear spins in single-molecule circuits are heralding new device concepts with no classical analogues. In this Review, we present the emerging methods being used to interrogate multiple properties in single molecule-based devices, detail how these measurements have advanced our understanding of the structure-function relationships in molecular junctions, and discuss the potential for future research and applications.

Electrochemical current-sensing atomic force microscopy in conductive solutions

Insulated atomic force microscopy probes carrying gold conductive tips were fabricated and employed as bifunctional force and current sensors in electrolyte solutions under electrochemical potential control. The application of the probes for current-sensing imaging, force and current-distance spectroscopy as well as scanning electrochemical microscopy experiments was demonstrated.

Conformation-dependent conductance through a molecular break junction

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations have been performed of a gold-1,4-benzenedithiol (BDT)-gold nanojunction under mechanical stress. For three different pulling rates between 10 and 40 m s(-1), it is found that the nanowire always ruptures between the second and third Au atom from the thiol sulfur. Larger rupture forces and longer extensions are required at higher pulling rates and vice versa. The electrical conductance was calculated along a pulling trajectory using the DFT-NEGF method to study the effect of thermal and stress-induced structural changes on the electrical transport properties. While the mechanically induced stretching of the junction is seen to lower the time-averaged conductance, thermal conformational changes are capable of altering the conductance by one order of magnitude. No single geometric quantity could be identified as the main contributor to the conductance fluctuations. Small modulations, however, can be explained in terms of C=C double bond vibrations in the BDT molecule. The dependence of the conductance on different geometric variables has further been investigated systematically by performing constrained geometry optimizations along a number of angle and dihedral coordinates. The largest changes in the conductance are observed when the Au-S-C angle and the Au-S-C-C dihedral are simultaneously constrained.

Tactile-feedback stabilized molecular junctions for the measurement of molecular conductance

Handling the (AFM) tip: The duration of stable molecular junctions was prolonged using a tactile feedback method in which the operator can sense the force of the AFM tip on the sample surface. The movement of the tip is adjusted accordingly, maintaining a more consistent current (i) and voltage (V), instead of having the tip move at a constant preset speed, as in the conventional setup.

Theoretical study on the rectifying performance of organoimido derivatives of hexamolybdates

We design a new type of molecular diode, based on the organoimido derivatives of hexamolybdates, by exploring the rectifying performances using density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function. Asymmetric current-voltage characteristics were obtained for the models with an unexpected large rectification ratio. The rectifying behavior can be understood by the asymmetrical shift of the transmission peak observed under different polarities. It is interesting to find that the preferred electron-transport direction in our studied system is different from that of the organic D-bridge-A system. The results show that the studied organic-inorganic hybrid systems have an intrinsically robust rectifying ratio, which should be taken into consideration in the design of the molecular diodes.

Single molecule bridging between metal electrodes

Single molecular junctions, in which a single molecule bridges between metal electrodes, have attracted wide attention as novel properties can appear due to their peculiar geometrical and electronic characters. The single molecular junction has also attracted attention due to its potential application in ultrasmall single molecular electronic devices, where single molecules are utilized as active electronic components. Thus, fabrication of single molecular junctions as well as understanding and controlling their properties (e.g. conductance, optical and magnetic properties) have become long-standing goals of scientists and engineers. This review article focuses on the experimental aspects of single molecular junctions, with primary focus on the electron transport mechanism.

Fast electron transfer through a single molecule natively structured redox protein

The electron transfer properties of proteins are normally measured as molecularly averaged ensembles. Through these and related measurements, proteins are widely regarded as macroscopically insulating materials. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), we present new measurements of the conductance through single-molecules of the electron transfer protein cytochrome b(562) in its native conformation, under pseudo-physiological conditions. This is achieved by thiol (SH) linker pairs at opposite ends of the molecule through protein engineering, resulting in defined covalent contact between a gold surface and a platinum-iridium STM tip. Two different orientations of the linkers were examined: a long-axis configuration (SH-LA) and a short-axis configuration (SH-SA). In each case, the molecular conductance could be 'gated' through electrochemical control of the heme redox state. Reproducible and remarkably high conductance was observed in this relatively complex electron transfer system, with single-molecule conductance values peaking around 18 nS and 12 nS for the SH-SA and SH-LA cytochrome b(562) molecules near zero electrochemical overpotential. This strongly points to the important role of the heme co-factor bound to the natively structured protein. We suggest that the two-step model of protein electron transfer in the STM geometry requires a multi-electron transfer to explain such a high conductance. The model also yields a low value for the reorganisation energy, implying that solvent reorganisation is largely absent.

Cooperative effects in inelastic tunneling

Several aspects of intermolecular effects in molecular conduction have been studied in recent years. These experimental and theoretical studies, made on several setups of molecular conduction junctions, have focused on the current-voltage characteristic that is usually dominated by the elastic transmission properties of such junctions. In this paper, we address cooperative intermolecular effects in the inelastic tunneling signal calculated for simple generic models of such systems. We find that peak heights in the inelastic (d(2)I/dE(2) vs E) spectrum may be affected by such cooperative effects even when direct intermolecular interactions can be disregarded. This finding suggests that comparing experimental results to calculations made on single-molecule junctions should be done with care.

Probing redox proteins on a gold surface by single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy

The interaction between the fluorescently labeled redox protein, azurin, and a thin gold film is characterized using single-molecule fluorescence intensity and lifetime measurements. Fluorescence quenching starts at distances below 2.3 nm from the gold surface. At shorter distances the quantum yield may decrease down to fourfold for direct attachment of the protein to bare gold. Outside of the quenching range, up to fivefold enhancement of the fluorescence is observed on average with increasing roughness of the gold layer. Fluorescence-detected redox activity of individual azurin molecules, with a lifetime switching ratio of 0.4, is demonstrated for the first time close to a gold surface.

Palladium electrodes for molecular tunnel junctions

Gold has been the metal of choice for research on molecular tunneling junctions, but it is incompatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor fabrication because it forms deep level traps in silicon. Palladium electrodes do not contaminate silicon, and also give higher tunnel current signals in the molecular tunnel junctions that we have studied. The result is cleaner signals in a recognition-tunneling junction that recognizes the four natural DNA bases as well as 5-methyl cytosine, with no spurious background signals. More than 75% of all the recorded signal peaks indicate the base correctly.

Voltage-dependent conductance states of a single-molecule junction

Ag-Sn-phthalocyanine-Ag junctions are shown to exhibit three conductance states. While the junctions are conductive at low bias, their impedance drastically increases above a critical bias. Two-level fluctuations occur at intermediate bias. These characteristics may be used to protect a nanoscale circuit. Further experiments along with calculations reveal that the self-limiting conductance of the junctions is due to reversible changes of the junction geometry.

Force-conductance correlation in individual molecular junctions

Conducting atomic force microscopy is an attractive approach enabling the correlation of mechanical and electrical properties in individual molecular junctions. Here we report on measurements of gold-gold and gold-octanedithiol-gold junctions. We introduce two-dimensional histograms in the form of scatter plots to better analyze the correlation between force and conductance. In this representation, the junction-forming octanedithiol compounds lead to a very clear step in the force-conductance data, which is not observed for control monothiol compounds. The conductance found for octanedithiols is in agreement with the idea that junction conductance is dominated by a single molecule.

Direct binding of a redox protein for single-molecule electron transfer measurements

An electron transfer protein is engineered with two thiol groups introduced at different positions in the molecular structure to allow robust binding to two gold electrodes. Atomic force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy single-molecule studies show that the engineered proteins: (1) bind to a gold electrode in defined orientation dictated by the thiol-pair utilised, and (2) have a higher conductance than the wild-type proteins indicating a more efficient electron transmission due to the strong gold-thiol contacts.

Multilayer graphene-coated atomic force microscopy tips for molecular junctions

Multilayer graphene tips are developed for conducting probe atomic force microscopy for the formation of molecular junctions. Molecular junctions using graphene tips show very small tip-to-tip variance, excellent operational stability, good endurance, and long shelf-life. These properties, together with high yield and the simple processing involved, suggest that commercial mass-production of graphene tips is viable for molecular electronic applications.

Conductance statistics from a large array of sub-10 nm molecular junctions

Devices made of few molecules constitute the miniaturization limit that both inorganic and organic-based electronics aspire to reach. However, integration of millions of molecular junctions with less than 100 molecules each has been a long technological challenge requiring well controlled nanometric electrodes. Here we report molecular junctions fabricated on a large array of sub-10 nm single crystal Au nanodots electrodes, a new approach that allows us to measure the conductance of up to a million of junctions in a single conducting atomic force microscope (C-AFM) image. We observe two peaks of conductance for alkylthiol molecules. Tunneling decay constant (β) for alkanethiols, is in the same range as previous studies. Energy position of molecular orbitals, obtained by transient voltage spectroscopy, varies from peak to peak, in correlation with conductance values.

Single molecule electronics and devices

The manufacture of integrated circuits with single-molecule building blocks is a goal of molecular electronics. While research in the past has been limited to bulk experiments on self-assembled monolayers, advances in technology have now enabled us to fabricate single-molecule junctions. This has led to significant progress in understanding electron transport in molecular systems at the single-molecule level and the concomitant emergence of new device concepts. Here, we review recent developments in this field. We summarize the methods currently used to form metal-molecule-metal structures and some single-molecule techniques essential for characterizing molecular junctions such as inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy. We then highlight several important achievements, including demonstration of single-molecule diodes, transistors, and switches that make use of electrical, photo, and mechanical stimulation to control the electron transport. We also discuss intriguing issues to be addressed further in the future such as heat and thermoelectric transport in an individual molecule.

An approach to measure electromechanical properties of atomic and molecular junctions

We describe a new setup for simultaneous measurements of force and current in conductive nanocontacts in a liquid environment with a high sampling rate and resolution. A lab-built current-to-voltage converter allows measurements of the current over seven orders of magnitude. As examples, we studied conductances and mechanical forces upon formation and breaking of gold atomic contacts and of two molecular junctions containing 1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethyne (M1) and 1,4-di(4-pyridyl)buta-1,3-diyne (M2). We found that the forces required to deform or break gold atomic contacts depend critically on the surrounding medium. Further, they show non-linear behaviour in dependence of the number N of gold atoms detached. The electromechanical properties of the two types of molecular junctions upon stretching were analysed by correlating breaking forces with simultaneously measured junction conductances. A rather complex behaviour in a wide range of forces was discovered. Comparison of the current-probe atomic force microscopy experiments on the rupture of molecular junctions with STM-based break junction experiments enables the assignment of breaking forces of molecular junctions to the corresponding junction conductances.

Electron transport properties of single molecular junctions under mechanical modulations

Electron transport behaviors of single molecular junctions are very sensitive to the atomic scale molecule-metal electrode contact interfaces, which have been difficult to control. We used a modified scanning probe microscope-break junction technique (SPM-BJT) to control the dynamics of the contacts and simultaneously monitor both the conductance and force. First, by fitting the measured data into a modified multiple tunneling barrier model, the static contact resistances, corresponding to the different contact conformations of single alkanedithiol and alkanediamine molecular junctions, were identified. Second, the changes of contact decay constant were measured under mechanical extensions of the molecular junctions, which helped to classify the different single molecular conductance sets into specific microscopic conformations of the molecule-electrode contacts. Third, by monitoring the changes of force and contact decay constant with the mechanical extensions, the changes of conductance were found to be caused by the changes of contact bond length and by the atomic reorganizations near the contact bond. This study provides a new insight into the understanding of the influences of contact conformations, especially the effect of changes of dynamic contact conformation on electron transport through single molecular junctions.

Single-molecule conductance determinations on HS(CH2)4O(CH2)4SH and HS(CH2)2O(CH2)2O(CH2)2SH, and comparison with alkanedithiols of the same length

The acetyl-protected, thiol-terminated ethers AcS(CH(2))(4)O(CH(2))(4)SAc and AcS(CH(2))(2)O(CH(2))(2)O(CH(2))(2)SAc have been synthesised, and a range of related scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM)-based methods have been employed to fabricate and electrically characterise gold | single molecule | gold junctions involving these molecules. The single-molecule conductance values obtained are consistently found to be substantially higher (by a factor of 2-3) than the conductances of analogous alkanedithiols of similar length (HS(CH(2))(9)SH and HS(CH(2))(8)SH, respectively). A rationalisation of these findings is suggested, namely that the lone pair electrons on the oxygen atoms are substantially closer in energy to the Fermi energy of the gold leads than are the occupied and unoccupied states of methylene chains, so that the ether oxygens behave in a manner analogous to 'wells' in a double-tunnelling-barrier system. In agreement with this suggestion, the current-voltage behaviour of the monoether can be fitted using the Simmons approach, and the barrier height is found to be significantly lower than for alkanedithiols of approximately the same length.

Large-scale atomistic simulations of environmental effects on the formation and properties of molecular junctions

Using an updated simulation tool, we examine molecular junctions composed of benzene-1,4-dithiolate bonded between gold nanotips, focusing on the importance of environmental factors and interelectrode distance on the formation and structure of bridged molecules. We investigate the complex relationship between monolayer density and tip separation, finding that the formation of multimolecule junctions is favored at low monolayer density, while single-molecule junctions are favored at high density. We demonstrate that tip geometry and monolayer interactions, two factors that are often neglected in simulation, affect the bonding geometry and tilt angle of bridged molecules. We further show that the structures of bridged molecules at 298 and 77 K are similar.

Relation between the chemical force and the tunnelling current in atomic point contacts: a simple model

The relation between the tunnelling current I(t) and the interaction energy/force E in an atomic-scale contact is discussed in the framework of a theoretical model established here. According to our model, we predict the existence of two characteristic scaling regimes, where the tunnelling current is either proportional to the interaction energy, I(t) ~ E, or to the square of the interaction energy, I(t) ~ E(2). We show that the existence of a given regime is basically controlled by two parameters: (i) the energy degeneracy Δ and (ii) the hopping t between electronic levels involved in the interaction process. In addition, we discuss the validity of the Bardeen method to determine the tunnelling current in the short tip-sample distances.

Comparison of the conductance of three types of porphyrin-based molecular wires: β,meso,β-fused tapes, meso-Butadiyne-linked and twisted meso-meso linked oligomers

The length dependence of charge transport is evaluated in three families of porphyrin-based wires. Planar edge-fused tapes and alkyne-linked oligomers mediate efficient charge transport with exceptionally shallow distance dependence, whereas the conductances of the twisted singly linked chains decrease steeply with increasing oligomer length. The planar tapes are more conjugated than the alkyne-linked oligomers, but these two types of wires have similar conductance attenuation factors.

Charge transfer through modified peptide nucleic acids

We studied the charge transfer properties of bipyridine-modified peptide nucleic acid (PNA) in the absence and presence of Zn(II). Characterization of the PNA in solution showed that Zn(II) interacts with the bipyridine ligands, but the stability of the duplexes was not affected significantly by the binding of Zn(II). The charge transfer properties of these molecules were examined by electrochemistry for self-assembled monolayers of ferrocene-terminated PNAs and by conductive probe atomic force microscopy for cysteine-terminated PNAs. Both electrochemical and single molecular studies showed that the bipyridine modification and Zn(II) binding do not affect significantly the charge transfer of the PNA duplexes.

Orientation-dependent electron transport in a single redox protein

The redox-active protein cytochrome b(562) has been engineered to introduce pairs of thiol groups in the form of cysteine residues at specified sites. Successful STM imaging of the molecules adsorbed on a gold surface indicated that one thiol group controls the orientation of the molecule and that the protein maintains its native form under the experimental conditions. Stable protein-gold STM tip electrical contact was directly observed to form via the second free thiol group in current-voltage and current-distance measurements. Proteins with thiol contacts positioned across the protein's short axis displayed a conductance of (3.48 ± 0.05) × 10(-5)G(0). However proteins with thiol groups placed along the long axis reproducibly yielded two distinct values of (1.95 ± 0.03) × 10(-5)G(0) and (3.57 ± 0.11) × 10(-5)G(0), suggesting that the placement of the asymmetrically located haem within the protein influences electron transfer. In contrast, the unengineered wild-type cytochrome b(562) had conductance values at least 1 order of magnitude less. Here we show that an electron transfer protein engineered to bind gold surfaces can be controllably oriented and electrically contacted to metallic electrodes, a prerequisite for potential integration into electronic circuits.