Related papers: Electronic and optical properties of electromigrat…
Impressive advances in nanoscience permit nowadays to manipulate single molecules and broadly control many of their properties. Still, tuning the molecular charge and vibrational properties of single molecules embedded in nanojunctions in…
The electronic excitation of molecules triggers diverse phenomena such as luminescence and photovoltaic effects, which are the bases of various energy-converting devices. Understanding and control of the excitations at the single-molecule…
Electronic transport across n-Si-alkyl monolayer/Hg junctions is, at reverse and low forward bias, independent of alkyl chain-length from 18 down to 1 or 2 carbons! This and further recent results indicate that electron transport is…
The conductance of a molecular junction is commonly determined by either charge-transfer-doping, where alignment of the Fermi energy to the molecular levels is achieved, or tunnelling through the tails of molecular resonances within the…
Electroosmosis is a fascinating effect where liquid motion is induced by an applied electric field. Counter ions accumulate in the vicinity of charged surfaces, triggering a coupling between liquid mass transport and external electric…
We propose a simple scheme that describes accurately essential non-equilibrium effects in nanoscale electronics devices using equilibrium transport theory. The scheme, which is based on the alignment and dealignment of the junction…
The energetic positions of molecular electronic states at molecule/electrode interfaces are crucial factors for determining the transport and optoelectronic properties of molecular junctions. Strong light--matter coupling offers a potential…
Using an atomic force microscope we have created nanotube junctions such as buckles and crossings within individual single-wall metallic carbon nanotubes connected to metallic electrodes. The electronic transport properties of these…
This thesis investigates the mechanically controlled break junctions, with a particular emphasis on elucidating the behaviour of molecular currents at room temperature. The core of this experimental investigation involves a detailed…
Molecular electronics break-junction experiments are widely used to investigate fundamental physics and chemistry at the nanoscale. Reproducibility in these experiments relies on measuring conductance on thousands of freshly formed…
The treatment of the previous paper is extended to molecular wires. Specifically, the effect of electron-vibrational interactions on the electronic transport induced by femtosecond $\omega+2\omega$ laser fields along unbiased molecular…
Single-molecule detection with chemical specificity is a powerful and much desired tool for biology, chemistry, physics, and sensing technologies. Surface-enhanced spectroscopies enable single molecule studies, yet reliable substrates of…
Electrical transients enabled by optical excitation and electric detection provide a distinctive opportunity to study the charge transport, recombination and even the hysteresis of a solar cell in a much wider time window ranging from…
In contrast to silicon-based transistors, single molecule junctions can be gated by simple mechanical means. Specifically, charge can be transferred between the junction's electrodes and its molecular bridge when the interelectrode distance…
A minimal model for coherent transport through a donor/acceptor molecular junction is presented. The two donor and acceptor sites are described by single levels energetically separated by an intramolecular tunnel barrier. In the limit of…
Investigating the interaction of electron beams with materials and light has been a field of research since more than a century. The field was advanced theoretically by the raise of quantum mechanics and technically by the introduction of…
Redox molecular junctions are molecular conduction junctions that involve more than one oxidation state of the molecular bridge. This property is derived from the ability of the molecule to transiently localize transmitting electrons,…
We propose an objective and robust method to extract the electrical conductance of single molecules connected to metal electrodes from a set of measured conductance data. Our method roots in the physics of tunneling and is tested on…
Following the lifespan of optical excitations from their creation to decay into photons is crucial in understanding materials optical properties. Macroscopically, techniques such as the photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy provide…
We investigate the thermopower of a metal-molecule-metal junction taking into account thermal effects on the junction. Based on analytical expressions and numerical simulations we show that the thermoelectric potential reveals valuable…