Characterizing Destructive Quantum Interference in Electron Transport

Abstract

Destructive quantum interference in electron transport through molecules provides an unconventional route for suppressing electric current. In this work we introduce "interference vectors" for each interference and use them to characterize the interference. An interference vector may be an orbital of the bare molecule, in which case the interference is very sensitive to perturbation. In contrast, an interference vector may be a combination of multiple molecular orbitals, leading to more robust interference that is likelier to be experimentally observable. Our characterization scheme quantifies these two possibilities through the degree of rotation and also assigns an order to each interference that describes the shape of the Landauer-Büttiker transmission function around the interference. Several examples are then presented, showcasing the generality of our theory and characterization scheme, which is not limited to specific classes of molecules or particular molecule-electrode coupling patterns.

26 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Giant Thermoelectric Effect from Transmission Supernodes
• Applicability of the Wide-Band Limit in DFT-Based Molecular Transport Calculations
• Breakdown of Interference Rules in Azulene, a Non-Alternant Hydrocarbon
• Destructive quantum interference in electron transport: A reconciliation of the molecular orbital and the atomic orbital perspective

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Symmetry aspects of spin-filtering in molecular junctions: hybridization and quantum interference effects
• The third law of thermodynamics in open quantum systems
• Stability of destructive interference antiresonances in electron transport through graphene nanostructures
• Graph-theoretical evaluation of the inelastic propensity rules for molecules with destructive quantum interference
• Conductance zeros in complex molecules and lattices from the interference set method
• Robust conductance zeroes in graphene quantum dots and other bipartite systems
• On Fremdervectors: Vectors Orthogonal to Their Images Under Linear Transformations