Controlled Stability of Molecular Junctions

摘要

Using single molecules as the building blocks of electronic devices is the ultimate goal of molecular electronics. However, measuring, understanding and manipulating the transport of charge through molecules attached to nanosized electrodes remain difficult tasks. It is thus important to fabricate molecular junctions exhibiting reproducible and stable electrical response and to evaluate their performance. While chemists are able to synthesize molecules with amazing electronic, optical, magnetic, thermoelectric, or electromechanical properties and with the potential to provide electronic devices with novel functionality, integration into single-molecule devices remains the main problem of the field of "molecular electronics". It has been demonstrated that electron transport through a molecule depends not only on its intrinsic properties but also on specific details of the contacts and the local environment. Here we report a new strategy to monitor the conductance of such molecular junctions that enables further insight to be gained into the detailed nature of the conductance of single molecules. Due to the stability and reproducibility of our junctions, our method provides a new perspective on studies of electronic transport on the nanometer scale.