Rotation effect in endohedral metallofullerene Ce@C_(82) single-molecule transistors

摘要

Fullerene molecules can accommodate a variety of metal atoms into their hollow cage. By incorporating the metal atoms, the endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) can exhibit diverse physical properties, which manifest EMFs as useful electronic elements. In fact, EMFs often exhibits anisotropic molecular orbitals because the encapsulated metal atom prefer to locate at the off-center, which induces electric dipole in the EMFs. In such a single-molecule transistors (SMT), switching the orientation of the molecular configuration with respect to the electrodes can drastically change the transport characteristics [1,2]. In-situ manipulation of the EMF molecule in nanogap electrodes and systematic study of the anisotropic molecular effect in SMTs remain to be explored.