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Mechanically controllable break junction in liquid environment : a tool to measure electronic transport through single molecules
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Grüter, Lucia |
| Copyright Year | 2006 |
| Abstract | This thesis discusses electronic transport measurements of single molecules in a liquid environment with the ultimate goal of demonstrating a molecular transistor addressed by a liquid gate. A mechanical controllable break junction with an integrated liquid cell is used as the measurement tool. We first studied the influence of different solvents on the conductance of gold junctions in the regime of tunneling and true metallic contacts. These measurements served as control experiment for the electrical characterization of single molecules. We then measured the conductance traces of thiolated C60 molecules while varying the electrode separation. The shape of the curves was found to be strongly influenced by the solvent. By using a resonant tunneling model, the electronic tunneling rates could be extracted. Finally, the effect of a liquid gate was tested on several tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) compounds. This thesis is organized in the following way. • The first chapter presents two different approaches for producing nanogaps in order to contact single molecules. One is based on electrochemical wires grown in pores, whereas the other method concerns the electrochemical narrowing of lithographically defined gaps. • The second chapter introduces the break junction and gives a short overview over its research field. Discussed are the geometry and the mechanical properties of the break junction and finally the conductance of atomic contacts. • Chapter 3 is dedicated to the fabrication of break junction samples and the measurement setup. • Electric conductance measurements of atomic contacts in liquid environments are presented in the forth chapter. This work was done with the perspective of measuring single molecules in the break junction. Also discussed is tunneling through alkanethiols. • Chapter 5 presents electric transport measurements through thiolated C60 molecules in a liquid environment. When varying the electrode separation a peak in the conductance traces has been observed. By applying a resonant tunneling model, we were able to extract electronic tunneling rates. • In Chapter six transport measurements through tetrathiafulvalene (TTF)-based molecules with an electrochemical gate are shown. A possible gate effect is discussed based on the I-V characteristics. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.5451/unibas-003965186 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://edoc.unibas.ch/427/1/DissB_7548.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.5451/unibas-003965186 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
