ABSTRACT
We present the chemical synthesis as well as charge transport measurements and calculations for a new tripodal platform based on a rigid 9,9'-spirobifluorene equipped with a phenylene-ethynylene wire. The transport experiments are performed with the help of the low-temperature mechanically controlled break junction technique with gold electrodes. By combining experimental and theoretical investigations of elastic and inelastic charge transport, we show that the current proceeds through the designated molecular wire and identify a binding geometry that is compatible with the experimental observations. The conductive molecular wire on the platform features a well-defined and relatively high conductance of the order of 10(-3)G0 despite the length of the current path of more than 1.7 nm, demonstrating that this platform is suitable to incorporate functional units like molecular switches or sensors.
ABSTRACT
We report measurements of the shot noise on single-molecule Au-1,4-benzenedithiol-Au junctions, fabricated with the mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) technique at 4.2 K in a wide range of conductance values from 10(-2) to 0.24 conductance quanta. We introduce a simple measurement scheme using a current amplifier and a spectrum analyzer and that does not imply special requirements regarding the electrical leads. The experimental findings provide evidence that the current is carried by a single conduction channel throughout the whole conductance range. This observation suggests that the number of channels is limited by the Au-thiol bonds and that contributions due to direct tunneling from the Au to the π-system of the aromatic ring are negligible also for high conductance. The results are supported by quantum transport calculations using density functional theory.
ABSTRACT
A numerical study is presented to investigate the spin-dependent transport through poly(dG)-poly(dC) DNA molecule sandwiched between ferromagnetic contacts in the absence and in the presence of environmental effects. Making use of tight-binding procedure and within the framework of a generalized Green's function technique, the room temperature current-voltage characteristics of DNA molecule and the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) of Electrode/DNA/Electrode structure, with iron (Fe) as the electrode are studied. It is found that the GMR to be lower than 12% for small applied bias and about 35% for applied bias larger than 2.5 volts. Considering the environmental effects, the GMR would be increased up to 13% at a bias lower than 2 volts and decreases up to 23% for the bias about 2.5 volts. In addition, our calculations indicate that for applied biases around 2.5 volts, the GMR decreases when the temperature increased.
