• 文献标题:   Graphene as a Promising Electrode for Low-Current Attenuation in Nonsymmetric Molecular Junctions
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   ZHANG Q, LIU LL, TAO SH, WANG CY, ZHAO CZ, GONZALEZ C, DAPPE YJ, NICHOLS RJ, YANG L
  • 作者关键词:   graphenebasedelectrode, single molecule conductance, charge transport, alkanedithiol, density functional theory
  • 出版物名称:   NANO LETTERS
  • ISSN:   1530-6984 EI 1530-6992
  • 通讯作者地址:   Xian Jiaotong Liverpool Univ
  • 被引频次:   14
  • DOI:   10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03180
  • 出版年:   2016

▎ 摘  要

We have measured the single-molecule conductance of 1,n-alkanedithiol molecular bridges (n = 4, 6, 8, 10, 12) on a graphene substrate using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)-formed electrical junctions. The conductance values of this homologous series ranged from 2.3 nS (n = 12) to 53 nS (n = 4), with a decay constant n of 0.40 per methylene (-CH2) group. This result is explained by a combination of density functional theory (DFT) and Keldysh-Green function calculations. The obtained decay, which is much lower than the one obtained for symmetric gold junctions, is related to the weak coupling at the molecule-graphene interface and the electronic structure of graphene. As a consequence, we show that using graphene nonsymmetric junctions and appropriate anchoring groups may lead to a much-lower decay constant and more-conductive molecular junctions at longer lengths.