Condensed Matter Seminar Series
(Joint with NanoScience Seminar Series)

Well-Defined Single Molecule Circuits: Why do Amine-Gold Linkag  Well-Defined Single Molecule Circuits:
Conductance Versus Conformation Using Amine-Gold Linkages

Well-Defined Single Molecule Circuits: Why do Amine-Gold Linkag

Latha Venkataraman

Columbia University

Wednesday October 11,  2:45pm,  Room 130,  Physics Building

Abstract:   Well-Defined Single Molecule Circuits: Why do Amine-Gold Linkag We recently demonstrated that the conductance of single molecule junctions formed by breaking Au point contacts in an environment of molecules with amine linkages can be measured reliably and reproducibly1. We have now studied junctions formed by approximately 30 different amine terminated molecules, allowing systematic study of the correlation between molecular properties and single molecule junction conductance. This talk will focus on the relation between molecular conductance and molecule conformation for the simple case of a biphenyl, two benzene rings linked together by a single C-C bond. Our results from a series of seven biphenyl derivatives show that the molecular junction conductance depends on the twist angle. Specifically, we find that the planar molecule has the highest conductance, and the conductance for the series decreases with increasing twist angle, consistent with a cosine squared relation predicted theoretically2.

1 L. Venkataraman, J.E. Klare, I.W. Tam, C. Nuckolls, M.S Hybertsen and M. Steigerwald, Nano Letters, vol. 6, pp. 458-462, 2006.(link to article)

2 L. Venkataraman, J.E. Klare, C. Nuckolls, M.S Hybertsen and M. Steigerwald, Nature, vol. 442, pp. 904-907, 2006.(link to article)

Host: Harold Baranger



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