Interaction effects in electric transport through self-assembled molecular monolayers

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the effect of inter-molecular Coulomb interactions on transport through molecular monolayers (or other devices based on a large number of nanoscale conductors connected in parallel). Due to the interactions, the current through different molecules become correlated, resulting in distinct features in the non-linear current-voltage characteristics, as we show by deriving and solving a type of modified master equation, suitable for describing transport through an infinite number of interacting conductors. Furthermore, if some of the molecules fail to bond to both electrodes, charge traps can be induced at high voltages and block transport through neighboring molecules, resulting in negative differential resistance.

10 pages, 5 figures. Published version

References in corpus (3)

• Molecular Transport Junctions: Vibrational Effects
• Optimal thermoelectric figure of merit of a molecular junction
• Spin-dependent electronic hybridization in a rope of carbon nanotubes

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Transport Through Self-Assembled Monolayer Molecular Junctions: Role of In-Plane Dephasing
• Charge order in an interacting monolayer under transverse bias