AVS 49th International Symposium
    Organic Films and Devices Wednesday Sessions
       Session OF+EL+SC-WeA

Paper OF+EL+SC-WeA7
Understanding Charge Transport Across Metal-Molecule-Metal Junctions

Wednesday, November 6, 2002, 4:00 pm, Room C-102

Session: Molecular and Organic Films and Devices
Presenter: J.G. Kushmerick, Naval Research Laboratory
Authors: J.G. Kushmerick, Naval Research Laboratory
R. Shashidhar, Naval Research Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Charge transport across a metal-molecule-metal junction is regulated by three factors 1) the structure of the molecule 2) the nature of the metal-molecule contacts and 3) the choice of metal electrode. We use an experimentally simple crossed-wire tunnel junction to interrogate how each of these three factors influences the current-voltage characteristics of a molecular junction. Results on symmetric and asymmetric junctions demonstrate that a specific molecular core can act either as a molecular wire or a molecular rectifier depending on its coupling to the metal electrodes. We will also show that the experimentally measured conductance of a molecular wire can be directly related to how well it's @pi@-conjugated backbone mimics an ideal one-dimensional metal.