The electrostatic potential profile along a biased molecular wire: A model quantum mechanical calculation
arXiv:physics/0209091 · doi:10.1063/1.1539863
Abstract
We study the electrostatic potential of a molecular wire bridging two metallic electrodes in the limit of weak contacts. With the use of a tight-binding model including a fully three-dimensional treatment of the electrostatics of the molecular junction, the potential is shown to be poorly screened, dropping mostly along the entire molecule. In addition, we observe pronounced Friedel oscillations that can be related to the breaking of electron-hole symmetry. Our results are in semi-quantitative agreement with recent state-of-the-art ab initio calculations and point to the need of a three-dimensional treatment to properly capture the behavior of the electrostatic potential. Based on these results, current-voltage curves are calculated within the Landauer formalism. It is shown that Coulomb interaction partially compensates the localization of the charges induced by the electric field and consequently tends to suppress zones of negative differential resistance.
8 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX4
References in corpus (10)
- Electron transmission through molecules and molecular interfaces
- Driving current through single organic molecules
- Electron transport through a metal-molecule-metal junction
- First-Principles Analysis of Molecular Conduction Using Quantum Chemistry Software
- Multi-wall carbon nanotubes as quantum dots
- Electron-Phonon interaction and electronic decoherence in molecular conductors
- Conduction in molecular junctions: Inelastic effects
- On the electrostatic potential profile in biased molecular wires
- Incoherent charge transport through molecular wires: interplay of Coulomb interaction and wire population
- Uniform Density Theorem for the Hubbard Model
Cited by in corpus (15)
- Driven quantum transport on the nanoscale
- Electrostatic potential profiles of molecular conductors
- Shot noise control in ac-driven nanoscale conductors
- Electrical transport through a mechanically gated molecular wire
- Current-voltage characteristics in donor-acceptor systems: Implications of a spatially varying electric field
- Theoretical Study of Spin-dependent Electron Transport in Atomic Fe Nanocontacts
- First-order coherent resonant tunneling through an interacting coupled-quantum-dot interferometer: generic quantum rate equations and current noise
- Controlled charge and spin current rectifications in a spin polarized device
- Particle current rectification in a quasi-periodic double-stranded ladder
- Quantum dynamics under coherent and incoherent effects of a spin bath in the Keldysh formalism: application to a spin swapping operation
- High degree of current rectification at nanoscale level
- Charging effects in biased molecular devices
- Multiple mobility edges in a 1D Aubry chain with Hubbard interaction in presence of electric field: Controlled electron transport
- Enhanced current rectification in graphene nanoribbons: Effects of geometries and orientations of nanopores
- Photo-induced directional transport in extended SSH chains