title: Electronic transport in benzodifuran single-molecule transistors.
abstract: Benzodifuran (BDF) single-molecule transistors have been fabricated in electromigration break junctions for electronic measurements. The inelastic electron tunneling spectrum validates that the BDF molecule is the pathway of charge transport. The gating effect is analyzed in the framework of a single-level tunneling model combined with transition voltage spectroscopy (TVS). The analysis reveals that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the thiol-terminated BDF molecule dominates the charge transport through Au-BDF-Au junctions. Moreover, the energy shift of the HOMO caused by the gate voltage is the main reason for conductance modulation. In contrast, the electronic coupling between the BDF molecule and the gold electrodes, which significantly affects the low-bias junction conductance, is only influenced slightly by the applied gate voltage. These findings will help in the design of future molecular electronic devices.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. smhou@pku.edu.cn Jianhui.Liao@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: An
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Songjie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shi-Xia
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Decurtins
authors.forename: Meilin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Shimin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao