Related papers: How an electrical current can stabilize a molecula…
Quantum transport in mesoscopic conductors is essentially governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. One of the major open questions of quantum mechanics is what happens if non-commuting observables are measured simultaneously. Since…
Molecules in molecular junctions are subject to current-induced forces that can break chemical bonds, induce reactions, destabilize molecular geometry, and halt the operation of the junction. Theories behind current-driven molecular…
Structural disorder is present in almost all experimental measurements of electronic transport through single molecules or molecular wires. To assess its influence on the conductance is computationally demanding, because a large number of…
Molecular conduction operating in dielectric solvent environments are often described using kinetic rates based on Marcus theory of electron transfer at a molecule-metal electrode interface. However, the successive nature of charge transfer…
Molecule-electrode contact atomic structures are a critical factor that characterizes molecular devices, but their precise understanding and control still remain elusive. Based on combined first-principles calculations and single-molecule…
Strong coupling between electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom is a basic requirement for the operation of any nanoelectromechanical device. In this Review we consider such devices and in particular investigate the properties of small…
We present a simple model of electrical transport through a metal-molecule-metal nanojunction that includes charging effects as well as aspects of the electronic structure of the molecule. The interplay of a large charging energy and an…
We present a qualitative model for a fundamental process in molecular electronics: the change in conductance upon bond breaking. In our model a diatomic molecule is attached to spin-polarized contacts. Employing a Hubbard Hamiltonian,…
We use a novel technique to experimentally explore transport properties through a single metallic nanoparticle with variable coupling to electric leads. For strong dot-lead coupling the conductance is an oscillatory function of the gate…
We investigate transport properties of molecular junctions under two types of bias--a short time pulse or an AC bias--by combining a solution for the Green functions in the time domain with electronic structure information coming from ab…
The rational design of single molecule electrical components requires a deep and predictive understanding of structure-function relationships. Here we explore the relationship between chemical substituents and the conductance of…
It was recently predicted [Phys. Rev. B 75, 193301 (2007)] that spin blockade may develop at nonmagnetic semiconductor/perfect ferromagnet junctions when the electron flow is directed from the semiconductor into the ferromagnet. Here we…
The dc current-voltage characteristics of small Josephson junctions reveal features that are not observed in larger junctions, in particular, a switch to the finite voltage state at current values much less than the expected critical…
The interaction of metal-molecule-metal junctions with light is considered within a simple generic model. We show, for the first time, that light induced current in unbiased junctions can take place when the bridging molecule is…
The transport properties of a simple model for a finite level structure (a molecule or a dot) connected to metal electrodes in an alternating current scanning tunneling microscope (AC-STM) configuration is studied. The finite level…
The conductance of breaking metallic nanojunctions shows plateaus alternated with sudden jumps, corresponding to the stretching of stable atomic configurations and atomic rearrangements, respectively. We investigate the structure of the…
We study inelastic effects on the electronic current noise in molecular junctions, due to the coupling between transport electrons and vibrational degrees of freedom. Using a full counting statistics approach based on the generalized…
In this work, we have investigated conduction through an artificial molecule comprising two coupled quantum dots. The question addressed is the role of inter-dot coupling on electronic transport. We find that the current through the…
The interaction between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in single-molecule junctions may result from the dependence of the electronic energies or the electronic states of the molecular bridge on the nuclear displacement. The…
We develop a general theory for thermal transport in anharmonic systems under the weak system-bath coupling approximation similar to the quantum master equation formalism. A current operator is derived, which is valid not only in the steady…