Multi-terminal quantum transport through a single benzene molecule: Evidence of a Molecular Transistor

Abstract

We explore multi-terminal quantum transport through a benzene molecule threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux $\varphi$. A simple tight-binding model is used to describe the system and all the calculations are done based on the Green's function formalism. With a brief description of two-terminal quantum transport, we present a detailed study of three-terminal transport properties through the benzene molecule to reveal the actual mechanism of electron transport. Here we numerically compute the multi-terminal conductances, reflection probabilities and current-voltage characteristics in the aspects of molecular coupling strength and magnetic flux $\varphi$. Most significantly we observe that, the molecular system where the benzene molecule is attached to three terminals can be operated as a transistor, and we call it a molecular transistor. This aspect can be utilized in designing nano-electronic circuits and our investigation may provide a basic framework to study electron transport in any complicated multi-terminal quantum system.

9 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Electron transport in a double quantum ring: Evidence of an AND gate
• Magnetoconductance properties of rectangular arrays of spintronic quantum rings
• A mesoscopic ring as a XNOR gate: An exact result

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Externally controlled local magnetic field in a conducting mesoscopic ring coupled to a quantum wire
• Conformation-dependent electron transport through a biphenyl molecule: Circular current and related issues
• Verification of cosine squared relation of electronic conductance in a biphenyl molecule
• Spin-dependent Seebeck Effect in Aharonov-Bohm Rings with Rashba and Dresselhaus Spin-orbit Interactions