Issue 45, 2015

Gating of single molecule junction conductance by charge transfer complex formation

Abstract

The solid-state structures of organic charge transfer (CT) salts are critical in determining their mode of charge transport, and hence their unusual electrical properties, which range from semiconducting through metallic to superconducting. In contrast, using both theory and experiment, we show here that the conductance of metal |single molecule| metal junctions involving aromatic donor moieties (dialkylterthiophene, dialkylbenzene) increase by over an order of magnitude upon formation of charge transfer (CT) complexes with tetracyanoethylene (TCNE). This enhancement occurs because CT complex formation creates a new resonance in the transmission function, close to the metal contact Fermi energy, that is a signal of room-temperature quantum interference.

Graphical abstract: Gating of single molecule junction conductance by charge transfer complex formation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Jul 2015
Accepted
18 Oct 2015
First published
19 Oct 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 18949-18955

Author version available

Gating of single molecule junction conductance by charge transfer complex formation

A. Vezzoli, I. Grace, C. Brooke, K. Wang, C. J. Lambert, B. Xu, R. J. Nichols and S. J. Higgins, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 18949 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR04420K

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