Single-Molecule Conductance in Atomically Precise Germanium Wires
摘要:
While the electrical conductivity of bulk-scale group 14 materials such as diamond carbon, silicon, and germanium is well understood, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the conductivity of these materials at the nano and molecular scales. Filling this gap is important because integrated circuits have shrunk so far that their active regions, which rely so heavily on silicon and germanium, begin to resemble ornate molecules rather than extended solids. Here we unveil a new approach for synthesizing atomically discrete wires of germanium and present the first conductance measurements of molecular germanium using a scanning tunneling microscope-based break-junction (STM-BJ) technique. Our findings show that germanium and silicon wires are nearly identical in conductivity at the molecular scale, and that both are much more conductive than aliphatic carbon. We demonstrate that the strong donor ability of C-Ge sigma-bonds can be used to raise the energy of the anchor lone pair and increase conductance. Furthermore, the oligogermane wires behave as conductance switches that function through stereoelectronic logic. These devices can be trained to operate with a higher switching factor by repeatedly compressing and elongating the molecular junction.
Köcher, Jürgen; Lehnig, Manfred; Neumann, Wilhelm P., Organometallics, 1988, vol. 7, # 5, p. 1201 - 1207
作者:Köcher, Jürgen、Lehnig, Manfred、Neumann, Wilhelm P.
DOI:——
日期:——
Barrau, J.; Rima, G.; El Amine, M., Synthesis and Reactivity in Inorganic and Metal-Organic Chemistry, 1988, vol. 18, p. 21 - 28
作者:Barrau, J.、Rima, G.、El Amine, M.、Satge, J.
DOI:——
日期:——
Tuning Conductance in π–σ–π Single-Molecule Wires
作者:Timothy A. Su、Haixing Li、Rebekka S. Klausen、Jonathan R. Widawsky、Arunabh Batra、Michael L. Steigerwald、Latha Venkataraman、Colin Nuckolls
DOI:10.1021/jacs.6b04394
日期:2016.6.22
While the single-molecule conductance properties of pi-conjugated and sigma-conjugated systems have been well-studied, little is known regarding the conductance properties of mixed sigma-pi backbone wires and the factors that control their transport properties. Here we utilize a scanning tunneling microscope-based break-junction technique to study a series of molecular wires with pi-sigma-pi backbone structures, where the pi-moiety is an electrode-binding thioanisole ring and the sigma-moiety is a triatomic alpha-beta-alpha chain composed of C, Si, or Ge atoms. We find that the sequence and composition of group 14 atoms in the alpha-beta-alpha chain dictates whether electronic communication between the aryl rings is enhanced or suppressed. Placing heavy atoms at the alpha-position decreases conductance, whereas placing them at the beta-position increases conductance: for example, the C-Ge-C sequence is over 20 times more conductive than the Ge-C-Ge sequence. Density functional theory calculations reveal that these conductance trends arise from periodic trends (i.e., atomic size, polarizability, and electronegativity) that differ from C to Si to Ge. The periodic trends that control molecular conductance here are the same ones that give rise to the alpha and beta silicon effects from physical organic chemistry. These findings outline a new molecular design concept for tuning conductance in single-molecule electrical devices.