Roman Huber

Molecular junctions based on aromatic coupling

If individual molecules are to be used as building blocks for electronic devices, it will be essential to understand charge transport at the level of single molecules. Most existing experiments rely on the synthesis of functional rod-like molecules with chemical linker groups at both ends to provide strong, covalent anchoring to the source and drain contacts. This approach has proved very successful, providing quantitative measures of single-molecule conductance, and demonstrating rectification and switching at the single-molecule level. However, the influence of intermolecular interactions on the formation and operation of molecular junctions has been overlooked. Here we report the use of oligo-phenylene ethynylene molecules as a model system, and establish that molecular junctions can still form when one of the chemical linker groups is displaced or even fully removed. Our results demonstrate that aromatic pi-pi coupling between adjacent molecules is efficient enough to allow for the controlled formation of molecular bridges between nearby electrodes.

Electrical conductance of conjugated oligomers at the single molecule level.

We determine and compare, at the single molecule level and under identical environmental conditions, the electrical conductance of four conjugated phenylene oligomers comprising terminal sulfur anchor groups with simple structural and conjugation variations. The comparison shows that the conductance of oligo(phenylene vinylene) (OPV) is slightly higher than that of oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE). We find that solubilizing side groups do neither prevent the molecules from being anchored within a break junction nor noticeably influence the conductance value.

Conductance values of alkanedithiol molecular junctions

We study the electrical conductance of octanedithiol molecular junctions using a mechanically controllable break-junction setup. The stability of the system allows control of whether the electrodes get into contact before each new molecular junction formation or not (contact and non-contact modes). We find three characteristic conductance values for octanedithiol. Well-defined peaks in the conductance histograms at multiples of 1.2◊10 5 G0 suggest that this value corresponds to the conductance of a single molecular junction conductance. Reproducible features are also observed at 4.5◊10 5 and 2.3◊ 10 4 G0. Thefirst value has the strongest statistical weight, whereas the second is only observed in the non-contact mode. We propose that these two values reflect the formation of several molecular junctions in parallel between the electrodes.

Electron heating effects in diffusive metal wires

We have investigated the electron heating in metallic diffusive wires of varying length at liquid-helium temperature by measuring the electric noise. The local increase of the electron temperature can be essential already for small currents and is well described by a heat-diffusion equation for the electrons. Depending on the electron thermal conductance and the electron–phonon coupling in the wire, different length regimes are identified. The quantitative knowledge of the electron temperature is important for analysis of nonequilibrium effects involving current heating in mesoscopic wires.

Contacting single template synthesized nanowires for electric measurements

With template synthesis nanowires with diameters as small as 5 nm can be fabricated using electrochemical plating in nanopores. In this work contacts are fabricated enabling electrical measurements on one nanowire. A combination of chemical methods and e-beam lithography is used. The successful contacting is demonstrated for the case of Ni wires.