Electrostatic control over temperature-dependent tunnelling across a single-molecule junction

Alvar R. Garrigues, Lejia Wang, Enrique del Barco*, Christian A. Nijhuis*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Understanding how the mechanism of charge transport through molecular tunnel junctions depends on temperature is crucial to control electronic function in molecular electronic devices. With just a few systems investigated as a function of bias and temperature so far, thermal effects in molecular tunnel junctions remain poorly understood. Here we report a detailed charge transport study of an individual redox-active ferrocene-based molecule over a wide range of temperatures and applied potentials. The results show the temperature dependence of the current to vary strongly as a function of the gate voltage. Specifically, the current across the molecule exponentially increases in the Coulomb blockade regime and decreases at the charge degeneracy points, while remaining temperature-independent at resonance. Our observations can be well accounted for by a formal single-level tunnelling model where the temperature dependence relies on the thermal broadening of the Fermi distributions of the electrons in the leads.
Original languageEnglish
Article number11595
JournalNature communications
Volume7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2016
Externally publishedYes

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