Generalized Voigt broadening due to thermal fluctuations of electromechanical nanosensors and molecular electronic junctions

Published

April 11, 2019

Author(s)

Maicol A. Ochoa, Michael P. Zwolak

Abstract

Graphene and other 2D materials give a platform for electromechanical sensing of biomolecules in aqueous, room temperature environments. The electronic current changes in response to mechanical detection, indicating the presence of forces due to interactions with, e.g., molecular species. We develop illustrative models of these sensors in order to give explicit, analytical expressions for the current and signal-to-noise ratio. Electromechanical structures have an electron transmission function that follows a generalized Voigt pro le, with thermal fluctuations giving a Gaussian smearing analogous to thermal Doppler broadening in solution/gas-phase spectroscopic applications. The Lorentzian component of the profile comes from the contact to the electrodes. After providing an accurate approximate form of this profi le, we calculate the mechanical susceptibility for a representative two-level bridge and the current fluctuations for electromechanical detection. These results give the underlying mechanics of electromechanical sensing in more complex scenarios, such as graphene deflectometry.

Citation

The Journal of Chemical Physics

Volume

150

Issue

14

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5081140

Keywords

Voigt profile, electromechanical sensing, deflectometry, nanoscale electronics

Citation

Ochoa, M. and Zwolak, M. (2019), Generalized Voigt broadening due to thermal fluctuations of electromechanical nanosensors and molecular electronic junctions, The Journal of Chemical Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5081140 (Accessed April 25, 2026)

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