Electronic and optical properties of electromigrated molecular junctions

Abstract

Electromigrated nanoscale junctions have proven very useful for studying electronic transport at the single-molecule scale. However, confirming that conduction is through precisely the molecule of interest and not some contaminant or metal nanoparticle has remained a persistent challenge, typically requiring a statistical analysis of many devices. We review how transport mechanisms in both purely electronic and optical measurements can be used to infer information about the nanoscale junction configuration. The electronic response to optical excitation is particularly revealing. We briefly discuss surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy on such junctions, and present new results showing that currents due to optical rectification can provide a means of estimating the local electric field at the junction due to illumination.

19 pages, 8 figures, invited paper for forthcoming special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. For other related papers, see http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~natelson/publications.html

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Optical Rectification and Field Enhancement in a Plasmonic Nanogap
• Vibrational and electronic heating in nanoscale junctions
• Dark plasmons in hot spot generation and polarization in interelectrode nanoscale junctions
• Impact of electrode density of states on transport through pyridine-linked single molecule junctions
• Quantum Dots at Room Temperature carved out from Few-Layer Graphene
• Field enhancement in subnanometer metallic gaps
• Electronic and optical properties of electromigrated molecular junctions
• Fabrication of large addition energy quantum dots in graphene
• Interplay of bias-driven charging and the vibrational Stark effect in molecular junctions
• Photonics and Spectroscopy in Nanojunctions: A Theoretical Insight
• Image charge effects in single-molecule junctions: Breaking of symmetries and negative differential resistance in a benzene transistor
• Cotunneling through a magnetic single-molecule transistor based on N\atC60
• Electroluminescence spectra in weakly coupled single-molecule junctions
• Generalized input-output method: A new route to quantum transport junctions
• Out-of-equilibrium singlet-triplet Kondo effect in a single C_60 quantum dot
• Plasmons in nanoscale metal junctions: optical rectification and thermometry