Origin of Discrepancies in Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectra of Molecular Junctions

Abstract

We report inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) of multilayer molecular junctions with and without incorporated metal nano-particles. The incorporation of metal nanoparticles into our devices leads to enhanced IET intensity and a modified line-shape for some vibrational modes. The enhancement and line-shape modification are both the result of a low lying hybrid metal nanoparticle-molecule electronic level. These observations explain the apparent discrepancy between earlier IETS measurements of alkane thiolate junctions by Kushmerick \emph{et al.} [Nano Lett. \textbf{4}, 639 (2004)] and Wang \emph{et al.} [Nano Lett. \textbf{4}, 643 (2004)].

arXiv comment4 pages, 4 figures accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (4)

• Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy in molecular junctions: Peaks and dips
• Ab initio analysis of electron-phonon coupling in molecular devices
• Molecular Transport Junctions: Propensity Rules for Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectra
• First-Principles Simulations of Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopyof Molecular Junctions

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Seebeck Coefficients in Nanoscale Junctions: Effects of Electron-vibration Scattering and Local Heating
• Effect of Thermoelectric Cooling in Nanoscale Junctions
• Identification of the Atomic Scale Structures of the Gold-Thiol Interfaces of Molecular Nanowires by Inelastic Tunneling Spectroscopy
• Inelastic Tunneling Spectroscopy of Gold-Thiol and Gold-Thiolate Interfaces in Molecular Junctions: The Role of Hydrogen
• Effects of Isotope Substitution on Local Heating and Inelastic current in Hydrogen Molecular Junctions