title: Identification of vibrational signatures from short chains of interlinked molecule-nanoparticle junctions obtained by inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy.
abstract: Short chains containing a series of metal-molecule-nanoparticle nanojunctions are a nano-material system with the potential to give electrical signatures close to those from single molecule experiments while enabling us to build portable devices on a chip. Inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy (IETS) measurements provide one of the most characteristic electrical signals of single and few molecules. In interlinked molecule-nanoparticle (NP) chains containing typically 5-7 molecules in a chain, the spectrum is expected to be a superposition of the vibrational signatures of individual molecules. We have established a stable and reproducible molecule-AuNP multi-junction by placing a few 1,8-octanedithiol (ODT) molecules onto a versatile and portable nanoparticle-nanoelectrode platform and measured for the first time vibrational molecular signatures at complex and coupled few-molecule-NP junctions. From quantum transport calculations, we model the IETS spectra and identify vibrational modes as well as the number of molecules contributing to the electron transport in the measured spectra.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, Box 534, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: S H M
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jafri
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Löfås
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fransson
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Blom
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grigoriev
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wallner
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ottosson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leifer