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Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics.

ABSTRACT: We report on an experimental investigation of transport through single molecules, trapped between two gold nano-electrodes fabricated with the mechanically controlled break junction (MCBJ) technique. The four molecules studied share the same core structure, namely oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE3), while having different aurophilic anchoring groups: thiol (SAc), methyl sulfide (SMe), pyridyl (Py) and amine (NH2). The focus of this paper is on the combined characterization of the electrical and mechanical properties determined by the anchoring groups. From conductance histograms we find that thiol anchored molecules provide the highest conductance; a single-level model fit to current-voltage characteristics suggests that SAc groups exhibit a higher electronic coupling to the electrodes, together with better level alignment than the other three groups. An analysis of the mechanical stability, recording the lifetime in a self-breaking method, shows that Py and SAc yield the most stable junctions while SMe form short-lived junctions. Density functional theory combined with non-equlibrium Green's function calculations help in elucidating the experimental findings.

SUBMITTER: Frisenda R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4578406 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics.

Frisenda Riccardo R Tarkuç Simge S Galán Elena E Perrin Mickael L ML Eelkema Rienk R Grozema Ferdinand C FC van der Zant Herre S J HS

Beilstein journal of nanotechnology 20150717

We report on an experimental investigation of transport through single molecules, trapped between two gold nano-electrodes fabricated with the mechanically controlled break junction (MCBJ) technique. The four molecules studied share the same core structure, namely oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE3), while having different aurophilic anchoring groups: thiol (SAc), methyl sulfide (SMe), pyridyl (Py) and amine (NH2). The focus of this paper is on the combined characterization of the electrical and ...[more]

PMID: 26425407

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Project description:Polyimides (PI) are a class of dielectric polymer used in a wide range of electronics and electrical engineering applications from low-voltage microelectronics to high voltage isolation. They are well appreciated because of their excellent thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties, each of which need to be optimized uniquely depending on the end application. For example, for high-voltage applications, the final polymer breakdown field and dielectric properties must be optimized, both of which are dependent on the curing process and the final physico-chemical properties of PI. The majority of studies to date have focused on a limited set of properties of the polymer and have analyzed the effect of curing from a physicochemical-, mechanical- or electrical-centric viewpoint. This paper seeks to overcome this, unifying all of these characterizations in the same study to accurately describe the universal effect of the cure temperature on the properties of PI and at an industrial processing scale. This paper reports the widest-ranging study of its kind on the effect that cure temperature has on the physico-chemical, mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of polyimide, specifically poly (pyromellitic dianhydride-co-4, 4'-oxydianiline) (PMDA/ODA). The optimization of the cure temperature is accurately studied not only regarding the degree of imidization (DOI), but also considering the entire physical properties. Particularly, the analysis elucidates the key role of the charge-transfer complex (CTC) on these properties. The results show that while the thermal and mechanical properties improve with both DOI and CTC formation, the electrical properties, particularly at high field conditions, show an antagonistic behavior enhancing with increasing DOI while degrading at higher temperatures as the CTC formation increases. The electrical characterization at low field presents an enhancement of the final PI properties likely due to the DOI. On the contrary, at high electric field, the conductivity results show an improvement at an intermediate temperature emphasizing an ideal compromise between a high DOI and PI chain packing when the thermal imidization process is performed over this equilibrium. This balance enables maximum performance to be obtained for the PI film with optimized electrical properties and, overall, optimal thermal and mechanical properties are achieved.

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Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics.

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Electrical properties and mechanical stability of anchoring groups for single-molecule electronics.

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