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Tada T. Quantum Chemical Studies on Possible Molecular Devices Based on Electric Field-Induced Intramolecular Charge Transfer. J Phys Chem A 2023; 127:7297-7308. [PMID: 37638599 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c02195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/29/2023]
Abstract
We report quantum chemical studies on possible molecular devices working based on electric field-induced intramolecular charge transfer (EFIMCT). In the case of donor-acceptor (DA)-type molecular systems, intramolecular charge transfer (IMCT) can be induced by applying the external electric field to molecular systems along the charge transport direction, providing a possible switching mechanism which does not depend upon the electron-phonon coupling effect and is different from the negative differential resistance mechanism observed in the well-known NO2-substituted phenylene ethynylene oligomers. When the EFIMCT proceeds, the molecular systems have strong static electron correlation effects, where the standard nonequilibrium Green's function-density functional theory (DFT) approach cannot be applied to the molecular junction. As a first step toward practical switching devices, we do quantum chemical studies on the EFIMCT in such molecular systems as an isolated molecule, instead of using the electrode-junction-electrode open quantum system model. A prototype molecule P1 is designed as a tentative candidate molecule where the EFIMCT can proceed. The complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) molecular orbital calculations on P1 indicate that the EFIMCT can proceed at the external electric field intensity of 0.003 au, corresponding to about 2.25 V bias voltage. This calculated result strongly suggests that the development of this type of switching devices working at practically low bias voltage is feasible if the molecular system is properly designed. Broken symmetry unrestricted Hartree-Fock and spin-polarized Kohn-Sham DFT calculations also qualitatively reproduce the CASSCF results on P1, to some extent, indicating that these approaches can be employed for rough estimations on the EFIMCT such as the first screening of a large quantity of candidate molecules for this type of molecular devices. The possibility of molecular memory devices based on the EFIMCT is also discussed by analyzing the ground and excited potential energy surface model. Remaining challenges to develop practical molecular devices are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tsukasa Tada
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Minami-Ohsawa 1-1, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
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Liu J, Segal D. Sharp Negative Differential Resistance from Vibrational Mode Softening in Molecular Junctions. NANO LETTERS 2020; 20:6128-6134. [PMID: 32574500 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
We unravel the critical role of vibrational mode softening in single-molecule electronic devices at high bias. Our theoretical analysis is carried out with a minimal model for molecular junctions, with mode softening arising due to quadratic electron-vibration couplings, and by developing a mean-field approach. We discover that the negative sign of the quadratic electron-vibration coupling coefficient can realize, at high voltage, a sharp negative differential resistance (NDR) effect with a large peak-to-valley ratio. Calculated current-voltage characteristics, obtained based on physical parameters for a nitro-substituted oligo(phenylene ethynylene) junction, agree very well with the measurements. Our results establish that vibrational mode softening is a crucial effect at high voltage, underlying NDR, a substantial diode effect, and the breakdown of current-carrying molecular junctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junjie Liu
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada
| | - Dvira Segal
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada
- Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada
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Thoss M, Evers F. Perspective: Theory of quantum transport in molecular junctions. J Chem Phys 2018; 148:030901. [DOI: 10.1063/1.5003306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 105] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Thoss
- Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Ferdinand Evers
- Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstr. 31, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany
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Pawlicki AA, Vilan A, Jurow M, Drain CM, Batteas JD. The influence of nearest-neighbour interactions and assembly dynamics on the transport properties of porphyrin supramolecular assemblies on Au(111). Faraday Discuss 2017; 204:349-366. [PMID: 28871297 DOI: 10.1039/c7fd00118e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Here we report on the effect of local molecular organization or "tertiary structure" on the charge transport properties of thiol-tethered tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPPF4-SC5SH) nanoscale clusters of ca. 5 nm in lateral dimension embedded within a dodecanethiol (C12) monolayer on Au(111). The structure of the clusters in the mixed monolayers and their resulting transport properties were monitored by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Spectroscopy (STS). The mixed films were deposited on Au(111) for a period of one to five days, during which the lateral dimensions of the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH islands that were formed after one day reduced by nearly 35% on average by five days, accompanied by a noticeable depletion of the surrounding C12 monolayer. These subtle changes in mixed monolayer morphology were accompanied by drastic differences in conductance. The ZnTPPF4-SC5SH clusters assembled for one day exhibited highly reproducible I-V spectra with simple tunneling behavior. By three days, this evolved into bias-induced switching of conductance, with a ∼100-1000 fold increase. Furthermore, current fluctuations started to become significant, and then dominated transport across the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH clusters assembled over five days. Our data suggests that this evolution can be understood by slow surface diffusion, enabling the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH molecules to overcome initial steric hindrance in the early stages of island formation in the C12 monolayer (at day one), to reach a more energetically-favored, close-packed organization, as noted by the decrease in island size (by day three). However, when desorption of the supporting matrix of C12 became pronounced (by day five), the ZnTPPF4-SC5SH clusters began to lose stabilization, and stochastic switching was then observed to dominate transport in the clusters, illustrating the critical nature of the local organization on these transport properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison A Pawlicki
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, PO Box 3003, College Station, TX 77842, USA.
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Wang H, Thoss M. Employing an interaction picture to remove artificial correlations in multilayer multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree simulations. J Chem Phys 2016; 145:164105. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4965712] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Haobin Wang
- Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80217-3364, USA
| | - Michael Thoss
- Institute for Theoretical Physics and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstr. 7/B2, D-91058, Germany
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Frisenda R, van der Zant HSJ. Transition from Strong to Weak Electronic Coupling in a Single-Molecule Junction. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2016; 117:126804. [PMID: 27689291 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.117.126804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2015] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
We have investigated charge transport in single-molecule junctions using gold nanoelectrodes at room and cryogenic (10 K) temperatures. A statistical analysis of the low-bias conductance, measured during the stretching of the molecular junctions, shows that the most probable single-molecule conductance is insensitive to the temperature as expected for off-resonant coherent transport. Low-temperature current-voltage measurements show that these junction conformations have a smooth tunnelinglike shape. While separating the electrodes further we find that, in about one-fourth of the cases, the junction switches in an abrupt way to a configuration with I-V characteristics exhibiting a gap around zero bias and resonances at finite bias. The analysis of the I-V shape and of the conductance distance dependence suggests a stretching-induced transition from the strong to the weak electronic coupling regime. The transition involves a large renormalization of the injection barrier and of the electronic coupling between the molecule and the electrodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Frisenda
- Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA, The Netherlands
| | - H S J van der Zant
- Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA, The Netherlands
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Säkkinen N, Peng Y, Appel H, van Leeuwen R. Many-body Green’s function theory for electron-phonon interactions: Ground state properties of the Holstein dimer. J Chem Phys 2015; 143:234101. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4936142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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Säkkinen N, Peng Y, Appel H, van Leeuwen R. Many-body Green’s function theory for electron-phonon interactions: The Kadanoff-Baym approach to spectral properties of the Holstein dimer. J Chem Phys 2015; 143:234102. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4936143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
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Xu B, Dubi Y. Negative differential conductance in molecular junctions: an overview of experiment and theory. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2015; 27:263202. [PMID: 26075799 DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/27/26/263202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
One of the ultimate goals of molecular electronics is to create technologies that will complement-and eventually supersede-Si-based microelectronics technologies. To reach this goal, electronic properties that mimic at least some of the electrical behaviors of today's semiconductor components must be recognized and characterized. An outstanding example for one such behavior is negative differential conductance (NDC), in which an increase in the voltage across the device terminals results in a decrease in the electric current passing through the device. This overview focuses on the NDC phenomena observed in metal-single molecule-metal molecular junctions, and is roughly divided into two parts. In the first part, the central experiments which demonstrate NDC in single-molecule junctions are critically reviewed, with emphasis on the main observations and their possible physical origins. The second part is devoted to the theory of NDC in single-molecule junctions, where simple models are employed to shed light on the different possible mechanisms leading to NDC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bingqian Xu
- Single Molecule Study Laboratory, College of Engineering and Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
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Simine L, Segal D. Electron transport in nanoscale junctions with local anharmonic modes. J Chem Phys 2014; 141:014704. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4885051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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Hofmeister C, Härtle R, Rubio-Pons Ó, Coto PB, Sobolewski AL, Thoss M. Switching the conductance of a molecular junction using a proton transfer reaction. J Mol Model 2014; 20:2163. [DOI: 10.1007/s00894-014-2163-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2013] [Accepted: 01/27/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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White AJ, Migliore A, Galperin M, Nitzan A. Quantum transport with two interacting conduction channels. J Chem Phys 2013; 138:174111. [PMID: 23656118 DOI: 10.1063/1.4802587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The transport properties of a conduction junction model characterized by two mutually coupled channels that strongly differ in their couplings to the leads are investigated. Models of this type describe molecular redox junctions (where a level that is weakly coupled to the leads controls the molecular charge, while a strongly coupled one dominates the molecular conduction), and electron counting devices in which the current in a point contact is sensitive to the charging state of a nearby quantum dot. Here we consider the case where transport in the strongly coupled channel has to be described quantum mechanically (covering the full range between sequential tunneling and co-tunneling), while conduction through the weakly coupled channel is a sequential process that could by itself be described by a simple master equation. We compare the result of a full quantum calculation based on the pseudoparticle non-equilibrium Green function method to that obtained from an approximate mixed quantum-classical calculation, where correlations between the channels are taken into account through either the averaged rates or the averaged energy. We find, for the steady state current, that the approximation based on the averaged rates works well in most of the voltage regime, with marked deviations from the full quantum results only at the threshold for charging the weekly coupled level. These deviations are important for accurate description of the negative differential conduction behavior that often characterizes redox molecular junctions in the neighborhood of this threshold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J White
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
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Demir F, Kirczenow G. Inelastic tunneling spectroscopy of gold-thiol and gold-thiolate interfaces in molecular junctions: the role of hydrogen. J Chem Phys 2012; 137:094703. [PMID: 22957582 DOI: 10.1063/1.4748379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
It is widely believed that when a molecule with thiol (S-H) end groups bridges a pair of gold electrodes, the S atoms bond to the gold and the thiol H atoms detach from the molecule. However, little is known regarding the details of this process, its time scale, and whether molecules with and without thiol hydrogen atoms can coexist in molecular junctions. Here, we explore theoretically how inelastic tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) can shed light on these issues. We present calculations of the geometries, low bias conductances, and IETS of propanedithiol and propanedithiolate molecular junctions with gold electrodes. We show that IETS can distinguish between junctions with molecules having no, one, or two thiol hydrogen atoms. We find that in most cases, the single-molecule junctions in the IETS experiment of Hihath et al. [Nano Lett. 8, 1673 (2008)] had no thiol H atoms, but that a molecule with a single thiol H atom may have bridged their junction occasionally. We also consider the evolution of the IETS spectrum as a gold STM tip approaches the intact S-H group at the end of a molecule bound at its other end to a second electrode. We predict the frequency of a vibrational mode of the thiol H atom to increase by a factor ~2 as the gap between the tip and molecule narrows. Therefore, IETS should be able to track the approach of the tip towards the thiol group of the molecule and detect the detachment of the thiol H atom from the molecule when it occurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Firuz Demir
- Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
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Demir F, Kirczenow G. Identification of the atomic scale structures of the gold-thiol interfaces of molecular nanowires by inelastic tunneling spectroscopy. J Chem Phys 2012; 136:014703. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3671455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
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Wang H, Pshenichnyuk I, Härtle R, Thoss M. Numerically exact, time-dependent treatment of vibrationally coupled electron transport in single-molecule junctions. J Chem Phys 2011; 135:244506. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3660206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
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Sissa C, Manna AK, Terenziani F, Painelli A, Pati SK. Beyond the Förster formulation for resonance energy transfer: the role of dark states. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2011; 13:12734-44. [DOI: 10.1039/c1cp21004a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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Cruz A, Mishra A, Schmickler W. Electron tunneling between two electrodes mediated by a molecular wire containing a redox center. Chem Phys 2010. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chemphys.2010.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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