Transport Properties Of Molecular Junctions

A comprehensive overview of the physical mechanisms that control electron transport and the characteristics of metal-molecule-metal (MMM) junctions. As far as possible, methods and formalisms presented elsewhere to analyze electron transport through molecules are avoided. This title introduces basic concepts--a description of the electron transport through molecular junctions—and briefly describes relevant experimental methods. Theoretical methods commonly used to analyze the electron transport through molecules are presented. Various effects that manifest in the electron transport through MMMs, as well as the basics of density-functional theory and its applications to electronic structure calculations in molecules are presented. Nanoelectronic applications of molecular junctions and similar systems are discussed as well. Molecular electronics is a diverse and rapidly growing field. Transport Properties of Molecular Junctions presents an up-to-date survey of the field suitable for researchers and professionals.

A comprehensive overview of the physical mechanisms that control electron transport and the characteristics of metal-molecule-metal (MMM) junctions. As far as possible, methods and formalisms presented elsewhere to analyze electron transport through molecules are avoided. This title introduces basic concepts--a description of the electron transport through molecular junctions—and briefly describes relevant experimental methods. Theoretical methods commonly used to analyze the electron transport through molecules are presented. Various effects that manifest in the electron transport through MMMs, as well as the basics of density-functional theory and its applications to electronic structure calculations in molecules are presented. Nanoelectronic applications of molecular junctions and similar systems are discussed as well. Molecular electronics is a diverse and rapidly growing field. Transport Properties of Molecular Junctions presents an up-to-date survey of the field suitable for researchers and professionals.

Here, we use and develop first-principles methods based on density functional theory (DFT) and beyond to understand and predict charge transport phenomena in the novel class of nanostructured devices: molecular junctions. Molecular junctions, individual molecules contacted to two metallic leads, which can be systematically altered by modifying the chemistry of each component, serve as test beds for the study of transport at the nanoscale. To date, various experimental methods have been designed to reliably assemble and mea- sure transport properties of molecular junctions. Furthermore, theoretical methods built on DFT designed to yield quantitative agreement with these experiments for certain classes of molecular junctions have been developed. In order to gain insight into a broader range of molecular junctions and environmental effects associated with the surrounding solution, this dissertation will employ, explore and extend first-principles DFT calculations coupled with approximate self-energy corrections known to yield quantitative agreement with experiments for certain classes of molecular junctions. To start we examine molecular junctions in which the molecule is strongly hybridized with the leads: a challenging limit for the existing methodology. Using a physically motivated tight-binding model, we find that the experimental trends observed for such molecules can be explained by the presence of a so-called "gateway" state associated with the chemical bond that bridges the molecule and the lead. We discuss the ingredients of a self-energy corrected DFT based approach to quantitatively predict conductance in the presence of these hybridization effects. We also develop and apply an approach to account for the surrounding environment on the conductance, which has been predominantly ignored in past transport calculations due to computational complexity. Many experiments are performed in a solution of non-conducting molecules; far from benign, this solution is known to impact the measured conductance by as much as a factor of two. Here, we show that the dominant effect of the solution stems from nearby molecules binding to the lead surface surrounding the junction and altering the local electrostatics. This effect operates in much the same way adsorbates alter the work function of a surface. We develop a framework which implicitly includes the surrounding molecules through an electrostatic-based lattice model with parameters from DFT calculations, reducing the computational complexity of this problem while retaining predictive power. Our approach for computing environmental effects on charge transport in such junctions will pave the way for a better understanding of the physics of nanoscale devices, which are known to be highly sensitive to their surroundings.

This work is dedicated to development of a first-principle approach to study electron-vibration interactions on quantum transport properties. In the first part we discuss a general implementation for inelastic transport calculations based on maximally localized Wannier functions and non-equilibrium Green's functions. Our approach is designed to determine inelastic transport properties such as differential conductances, inelastic tunneling spectroscopies and nonequilibrium vibrational populations. Our approach is first applied to benzene molecular junctions connected to cumulene and carbon nanotube electrodes. In these examples, we discuss the role of the multichannel effect and of parity selection rules on the polarity of conductance steps, and the appearance of a non-monotonic behavior in the vibrational population. In the second part, we extend our formalism to study the effect of the electron-vibration interactions on the local current distribution. Using non-equilibrium Green's functions, we derive an expression for the local distribution of the inelastic current. Applying this to the benzene-cumulene junction, we show that the electron-vibration interaction can lead to a locally inverted current direction and the formation of loop currents. In the third part, we present a comprehensive study of the elastic and inelastic transport properties of carbon nanotube-zigzag graphene nanoribbon junctions, as realized in recent experiments, focusing on the local current distribution over the junctions. We calculate the local distribution of the elastic current to visualize the current injection pattern from the CNT electrodes to the ZGNRs and the current path inside the ZGNRs. For inelastic transport properties, we find a similarity in the IETS peaks and the corresponding vibrational configurations for the CNT/ZGNR/CNT junctions with different widths. As observed in the benzene-cumulene junction, we find that the inelastic current emerges from a complex network that includes loop currents. Our method and implementation can be generalized to other types of interactions, and is not limited to the electron-vibration interactions. Thus our work will be a starting point to understand the role of different and diverse interaction effects on quantum transport, using realistic predictive first-principle calculations.

We also report the thermopower of the highly conducting, covalently bound molecular junctions that we have recently been able to form, and learn that, because of their unique transport properties, the junction power factors, GS2, are extremely high. Finally, we discuss the measurement of molecular current-voltage curves and consider the electronic and physical effects of applying a large bias to the system. We conclude with a summary of the work discussed and an outlook on related scientific studies.

Over recent decades, the increase in computational resources, coupled with the popularity of competitive quantum mechanics alternatives (particularly DFT), has promoted the widespread penetration of quantum mechanics calculations into a variety of fields targeting the reactivity of molecules. This book presents a selection of original research papers and review articles illustrating diverse applications of quantum mechanics in the study of problems involving molecules and their reactivity.