title: Polarizabilities of adsorbed and assembled molecules: measuring the conductance through buried contacts.
abstract: We have measured the polarizabilities of four families of molecules adsorbed to Au{111} surfaces, with structures ranging from fully saturated to fully conjugated, including single-molecule switches. Measured polarizabilities increase with increasing length and conjugation in the adsorbed molecules and are consistent with theoretical calculations. For single-molecule switches, the polarizability reflects the difference in substrate-molecule electronic coupling in the ON and OFF conductance states. Calculations suggest that the switch between the two conductance states is correlated with an oxidation state change in a nitro functional group in the switch molecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Sina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yeganeh
authors.forename: Yuxing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Shelley A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Claridge
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tour
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ratner
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D016252:Microscopy, Scanning Tunneling / Q000379:methods*; D008872:Microwaves; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D006046:Gold