title: Temperature-Dependent Electron Transport in Single Terphenyldithiol Molecules.
abstract: Analyzing the electronic properties of individual terphenyldithiol (TPT) molecules in a temperature range of 30-300 K using cryogenic mechanically controllable break junctions, we observe an unexpected change of the transport mechanism with temperature for this linear and symmetric aromatic molecule. Whereas the work function (∼3.8 eV) and molecular energy level (∼0.8 to ∼1 eV depending on the analysis of the data) of TPT are temperature-independent, elastic tunneling dominates charge transport at low temperatures, whereby an inelastic transport (via hopping) sets in at about 100 K. The molecular level of TPT lies around 1 eV and is temperature-independent. This unusual temperature dependence agrees with recent predictions for other short molecules using density-functional-based transport studies as well as experimental observations obtained for similar relatively short rodlike molecules.
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) and JARA-FIT Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, Forschungszentrum Jülich , D-52425 Jülich, Germany.|Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , 28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: T
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4072-1657
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grellmann
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) and JARA-FIT Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, Forschungszentrum Jülich , D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1296-8265
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) and JARA-FIT Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, Forschungszentrum Jülich , D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6143-2702
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Offenhäusser
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) and JARA-FIT Fundamentals of Future Information Technology, Forschungszentrum Jülich , D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1898-0751
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wördenweber