title: Photoinduced switching of the current through a single molecule: effects of surface plasmon excitations of the leads.
abstract: The photoinduced switch of the current through a single molecule is studied theoretically by including plasmon excitations of the leads. A molecule weakly linked to two spherical nanoelectrodes is considered resulting in sequential charge transmission scheme. Taking the molecular charging energy (relative to the equilibrium lead chemical potential) to be comparable to the molecular excitation energy, an efficient current switch in a low voltage range becomes possible. A remarkable enhancement of the current is achieved due to simultaneous plasmon excitations in the electrodes. The behavior is explained by an increased molecular absorbance due to oscillator strength transfer from the electrode plasmon excitations and by a net excitation energy motion from the electrodes to the molecule.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstrasse 15, D-12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Yaroslav
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zelinskyy
authors.forename: Volkhard
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: May
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004566:Electrodes; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D008027:Light; D008956:Models, Chemical; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance