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PUBLICATIONS

Transition From Direct Tunneling to Field Emission in Metal-Molecule-Metal Junctions

Published

Author(s)

J M. Beebe, BongSoo Kim, John William Gadzuk, C D. Frisbie, James G. Kushmerick

Abstract

Current-voltage measurements of metal-molecule-metal tunnel junctions formed from p-conjugated thiols exhibit an inflection point on a plot of ln(I/V2) against 1/V, consistent with a transition in tunneling barrier shape from trapezoidal to triangular. The position of this inflection point was found to scale linearly with the offset in energy between the Au Fermi level and the highest occupied molecular orbital as determined by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Asymmetric voltage drops at the two metal-molecule interfaces lead to a bias polarity dependence of the barrier transition.
Citation
Physical Review Letters
Volume
97
Issue
No 2
Pub Type
Journals

Keywords

charge transport, molecular electronics, nanotechnology, self-assembled monolayers

Citation

Beebe, J. , Kim, B. , , J. , Frisbie, C. and Kushmerick, J. (2006), Transition From Direct Tunneling to Field Emission in Metal-Molecule-Metal Junctions, Physical Review Letters (Accessed May 4, 2025)

Issues

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Created July 1, 2006, Updated February 17, 2017