Measurement of single-molecule resistance by repeated formation of molecular junctions

Bingqian Xu, Nongjian Tao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2013 Scopus citations

Abstract

The conductance of a single molecule connected to two gold electrodes was determined by repeatedly forming thousands of gold-motecule-gold junctions. Conductance histograms revealed well-defined peaks at integer multiples of a fundamental conductance value, which was used to identify the conductance of a single molecule. The resistances near zero bias were 10.5 ± 0.5, 51 ± 5, 630 ± 50, and 1.3 ± 0.1 megohms for hexanedithiol, octanedithiol, decanedithiol, and 4,4′ bipyridine, respectively. The tunneling decay constant (βN) for N-alkanedithiols was 1.0 ± 0.1 per carbon atom and was weakly dependent on the applied bias. The resistance and βN values are consistent with first-principles calculations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1221-1223
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume301
Issue number5637
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 29 2003

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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