Structural Memory Effects in Gold-4,4'-Bipyridine-Gold Single-Molecule Nanowires

We study the vulnerability of single-molecule nanowires against a temporary disconnection of the junction. To this end, we compare the room and low-temperature junction formation trajectories along the opening and closing of gold-4,4'-bipyridine-gold single-molecule nanowires. In the low-temperature measurements, the cross-correlations between the opening and subsequent closing conductance traces demonstrate a strong structural memory effect: around half of the molecular opening traces exhibit similar, statistically dependent molecular features as the junction is closed again. This means that the junction stays rigid and the molecule remains protruding from one electrode even after the rupture of the junction, and therefore, the same single-molecule junction can be reestablished if the electrodes are closed again. In the room-temperature measurements, however, weak opening-closing correlations are found, indicating a significant rearrangement of the junction after the rupture and the related loss of structural memory effects.

Voltage-Controlled Binary Conductance Switching in Gold-4,4'-Bipyridine-Gold Single-Molecule Nanowires

We investigate gold-4,4'-bipyridine-gold single-molecule junctions with the mechanically controllable break junction technique at cryogenic temperature (T = 4.2 K). We observe bistable probabilistic conductance switching between the two molecular binding configurations, influenced both by the mechanical actuation and by the applied voltage. We demonstrate that the relative dominance of the two conductance states is tunable by the electrode displacement, whereas the voltage manipulation induces an exponential speedup of both switching times. The detailed investigation of the voltage-tunable switching rates provides an insight into the possible switching mechanisms.

In situ formation of H-bonding imidazole chains in break-junction experiments

As a small molecule possessing both strong H-bond donor and acceptor functions, 1H-imidazole can participate in extensive homo- or heteromolecular H-bonding networks. These properties are important in Nature, as imidazole moieties are incorporated in many biologically-relevant compounds. Imidazole also finds applications ranging from corrosion inhibition to fire retardants and photography. We have found a peculiar behaviour of imidazole during scanning tunnelling microscopy-break junction (STM-BJ) experiments, in which oligomeric chains connect the two electrodes and allow efficient charge transport. We attributed this behaviour to the formation of hydrogen-bonding networks, as no evidence of such behaviour was found in 1-methylimidazole (incapable of participating in intramolecular hydrogen bonding). The results are supported by DFT calculations, which confirmed our hypothesis. These findings pave the road to the use of hydrogen-bonding networks for the fabrication of dynamic junctions based on supramolecular interactions.

Automatic classification of single-molecule charge transport data with an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm

Single-molecule electrical characterization reveals the events occurring at the nanoscale, which provides guidelines for molecular materials and devices. However, data analysis to extract valuable information from the nanoscale measurement data remained as a major challenge. Herein, an unsupervised deep leaning method, a deep auto-encoder K-means (DAK) algorithm, is developed to distinguish different events from single-molecule charge transport measurements. As validated by three single-molecule junction systems, the method applies to the recognition for multiple compounds with various events and offers an effective data analysis method to track reaction kinetics at the single-molecule scale. This work opens the possibility of using deep unsupervised approaches to studying the physical and chemical processes at the single-molecule level.

In-situ formation of one-dimensional coordination polymers in molecular junctions

We demonstrate the bottom-up in-situ formation of organometallic oligomer chains at the single-molecule level. The chains are formed using the mechanically controllable break junction technique operated in a liquid environment, and consist of alternating isocyano-terminated benzene monomers coordinated to gold atoms. We show that the chaining process is critically determined by the surface density of molecules. In particular, we demonstrate that by reducing the local supply of molecules within the junction, either by lowering the molecular concentration or by adding side groups, the oligomerization process can be suppressed. Our experimental results are supported by ab-initio simulations, confirming that the isocyano terminating groups display a high tendency to form molecular chains, as a result of their high affinity for gold. Our findings open the road for the controlled formation of one-dimensional, single coordination-polymer chains as promising model systems of organometallic frameworks.

Organometallic frameworks have raised considerable interest in the area of nanoelectronics, but they are usually prepared at the ensemble level resulting in limited control. Vladyka et al. control the formation of single oligomer chains, unit by unit, in a mechanically controllable break-junction setup.