Environmental control of single-molecule junction transport.

The conductance of individual 1,4-benzenediamine (BDA)-Au molecular junctions is measured in different solvent environments using a scanning tunneling microscope based point-contact technique. Solvents are found to increase the conductance of these molecular junctions by as much as 50%. Using first principles calculations, we explain this increase by showing that a shift in the Au contact work function is induced by solvents binding to undercoordinated Au sites around the junction. Increasing the Au contact work function reduces the separation between the Au Fermi energy and the highest occupied molecular orbital of BDA in the junction, increasing the measured conductance. We demonstrate that the solvent-induced shift in conductance depends on the affinity of the solvent to Au binding sites and also on the induced dipole (relative to BDA) upon adsorption. Via this mechanism, molecular junction level alignment and transport properties can be statistically altered by solvent molecule binding to the contact surface.

Electronic structure of strain-tunable Janus WSSe-ZnO heterostructures from first-principles.

The electronic structure of semiconducting 2D materials such as monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are known to be tunable via environment and external fields, and van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures consisting of stacks of distinct types of 2D materials offer the possibility to further tune and optimize the electronic properties of 2D materials. In this work, we use density functional theory (DFT) calculations to calculate the structure and electronic properties of a vdW heterostructure of Janus monolayer WSSe with monolayer ZnO, both of which possess out of plane dipole moments. The effects of alignment, biaxial and uniaxial strain, orientation, and electric field on dipole moments and band edge energies of this heterostructure are calculated and examined. We find that the out of plane dipole moment of the ZnO monolayer is highly sensitive to strain, leading to the broad tunability of the heterostructure band edge energies over a range of experimentally-relevant strains. The use of strain-tunable 2D materials to control band offsets and alignment is a general strategy applicable to other vdW heterostructures, one that may be advantageous in the context of clean energy applications, including photocatalytic applications, and beyond.

Nonperturbative visualization of nanoscale plasmonic field distributions via photon localization microscopy.

We demonstrate the nonperturbative use of diffraction-limited optics and photon localization microscopy to visualize the controlled nanoscale shifts of zeptoliter mode volumes within plasmonic nanostructures. Unlike tip- or coating-based methods for mapping near fields, these measurements do not affect the electromagnetic properties of the structure being investigated. We quantify the local field manipulation capabilities of asymmetric bowtie antennas, in agreement with theoretical calculations. The photon-limited localization accuracy of nanoscale mode positions is determined for many of the measured devices to be within a 95% confidence interval of +/-2.5 nm. This accuracy also enables us to characterize the effects of nm-scale fabrication irregularities on local plasmonic mode distributions.

Chemical Raman enhancement of organic adsorbates on metal surfaces.

Using first-principles theory and experiments, chemical contributions to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for a well-studied organic molecule, benzene thiol, chemisorbed on planar Au(111) surfaces are explained and quantified. Density functional theory calculations of the static Raman tensor demonstrate a strong mode-dependent modification of benzene thiol Raman spectra by Au substrates. Raman active modes with the largest enhancements result from stronger contributions from Au to their electron-vibron coupling, as quantified through a deformation potential. A straightforward and general analysis is introduced to extract chemical enhancement from experiments for specific vibrational modes; measured values are in excellent agreement with our calculations.

Relating energy level alignment and amine-linked single molecule junction conductance.

Using photoemission spectroscopy, we determine the relationship between electronic energy level alignment at a metal-molecule interface and single-molecule junction transport data. We measure the position of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) relative to the Au metal Fermi level for three 1,4-benzenediamine derivatives on Au(111) and Au(110) with ultraviolet and resonant X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. We compare these results to scanning tunnelling microscope-based break-junction measurements of single molecule conductance and to first-principles calculations. We find that the energy difference between the HOMO and Fermi level for the three molecules adsorbed on Au(111) correlate well with changes in conductance and agree well with quasiparticle energies computed from first-principles calculations incorporating self-energy corrections. On the Au(110) that presents Au atoms with lower-coordination, critical in break-junction conductance measurements, we see that the HOMO level shifts further from the Fermi level. These results provide the first direct comparison of spectroscopic energy level alignment measurements with single molecule junction transport data.

Conductance and geometry of pyridine-linked single-molecule junctions.

We have measured the conductance and characterized molecule-electrode binding geometries of four pyridine-terminated molecules by elongating and then compressing gold point contacts in a solution of molecules. We have found that all pyridine-terminated molecules exhibit bistable conductance signatures, signifying that the nature of the pyridine-gold bond allows two distinct conductance states that are accessed as the gold-molecule-gold junction is elongated. We have identified the low-conductance state as corresponding to a molecule fully stretched out between the gold electrodes, where the distance between contacts correlates with the length of the molecule; the high-conductance state is due to a molecule bound at an angle. For all molecules, we have found that the distribution of junction elongations in the low-conductance state is the same, while in the high-conductance state, the most likely elongation length increases linearly with molecule length. The results of first-principles conductance calculations for the four molecules in the low-conductance geometry agree well with the experimental results and show that the dominant conducting channel in the conjugated pyridine-linked molecules is through the pi* orbital.

Charge separation via strain in silicon nanowires.

Axial charge separation in small diameter, partially strained silicon nanowires is predicted from ab initio calculations with electrons and holes located in different ends of the wires. We show that this effect can be understood from the topologies of near-gap wave functions, and that it is enhanced by quantum confinement. The possibility of utilizing partial strain for charge separation at the nanoscale opens up a new avenue for designing solar cells by morphology control, where effectively a type-II homojunction is formed and charge separation is facilitated by thermalization.

First-principles studies of the dynamics of [2]rotaxane molecular switches.

Realization of controlled binary switching in individual molecules is of fundamental importance for nanoscale electronics where the use of molecular components promises the flexibility of engineering performance through controlled organic synthesis. The active component of the [2]rotaxane molecule consists of a cyclobis-(paraquat-p-phenylene) ring-shaped structure [(CBPQT(4+))(PF(6)(-))(4)], proposed to switch between two stations, tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and 1,5-dioxynapthalene (DNP), that lie along a common molecular backbone. However, there are still several open questions regarding their operation and performance, particularly in a device geometry. In this work, the switching speed of crossbar array devices based on [2]rotaxane arrays is studied with first principles density functional theory (DFT). The energetics of a likely configurational pathway for the CBPQT-ring shuttling along the molecular backbone between stations is computed and analyzed, as are ionization potentials and electrostatic screening properties. From these quantities, a new switching mechanism is identified. The applied bias at the cathode alters the energy landscape, making the OFF-state configuration energetically unfavorable relative to the ON-state without involving charging, as previously suggested. (1) For a crossbar memory array of reasonable size, the calculations predict that the switching speed is dominated by the shuttling time of the CBPQT-ring, which is estimated to be a few microseconds. The applicability of this technology is discussed in light of this result.

Length dependence of conductance in aromatic single-molecule junctions.

Using a scattering-state approach incorporating self-energy corrections to the junction level alignment, the conductance G of oligophenyldiamine-Au junctions is calculated and elucidated. In agreement with experiment, we find G decays exponentially with the number of phenyls with decay constant beta = 1.7. A straightforward, parameter-free self-energy correction, including electronic exchange and correlations beyond density functional theory (DFT), is found to be essential for understanding the measured values of both G and beta. Importantly, our results confirm quantitatively the picture of off-resonant tunneling in these systems and show that exchange and correlation effects absent from standard DFT calculations contribute significantly to beta.

Mechanically controlled binary conductance switching of a single-molecule junction.

Molecular-scale components are expected to be central to the realization of nanoscale electronic devices. Although molecular-scale switching has been reported in atomic quantum point contacts, single-molecule junctions provide the additional flexibility of tuning the on/off conductance states through molecular design. To date, switching in single-molecule junctions has been attributed to changes in the conformation or charge state of the molecule. Here, we demonstrate reversible binary switching in a single-molecule junction by mechanical control of the metal-molecule contact geometry. We show that 4,4'-bipyridine-gold single-molecule junctions can be reversibly switched between two conductance states through repeated junction elongation and compression. Using first-principles calculations, we attribute the different measured conductance states to distinct contact geometries at the flexible but stable nitrogen-gold bond: conductance is low when the N-Au bond is perpendicular to the conducting pi-system, and high otherwise. This switching mechanism, inherent to the pyridine-gold link, could form the basis of a new class of mechanically activated single-molecule switches.

Quantum confinement and electronic properties of tapered silicon nanowires.

Using ab initio calculations, structural tapering of silicon nanowires is shown to have a profound effect on their electronic properties. In particular, the electronic structure of small-diameter tapered silicon nanowires is found to have a strong axial dependence, with unoccupied eigenstates being substantially more sensitive to diameter. Moreover, the states corresponding to the highest occupied and the lowest unoccupied states are spatially separated along the wire axis by the tapering-induced charge transfer and a strong electrostatic potential gradient, due to an appreciable variation in quantum confinement strength with diameter.

Mechanical and charge transport properties of alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers on a au(111) surface: the role of molecular tilt.

The relationship between charge transport and mechanical properties of alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on Au(111) films has been investigated using an atomic force microscope with a conductive tip. Molecular tilts induced by the pressure applied by the tip cause stepwise increases in film conductivity. A decay constant beta = 0.57 +/- 0.03 A-1 was found for the current passing through the film as a function of tip-substrate separation due to this molecular tilt. This is significantly smaller than the value of approximately 1 A-1 found when the separation is varied by changing the length of the alkanethiol molecules. Calculations indicate that, for isolated dithiol molecules S-bonded to hollow sites, the junction conductance does not vary significantly as a function of molecular tilt. The impact of S-Au bonding on SAM conductance is discussed.

Electronic energy levels of weakly coupled nanostructures: C60-metal interfaces.

A new approach based on density functional theory and the Anderson impurity model is developed to calculate charging energies and quasiparticle energy gaps of molecular systems weakly coupled to an environment. The approach is applied to C60 adsorbed on Au(111) and Ag(100) surfaces, resulting in electronic structures that are in excellent agreement with recent experiments. Image-charge screening effects on molecular orbital energies are found to be of similar magnitude for the two surfaces, but charge-transfer screening and spin fluctuations also affect the Ag case due to a partially occupied C60 orbital.

Negative differential resistance in carbon atomic wire-carbon nanotube junctions.

Negative differential resistance (NDR) was recently observed in carbon nanotube junctions just before breaking and hypothesized to arise from the formation of monatomic carbon wires in the junction. Motivated by these results, a first-principles scattering-state approach, based on density functional theory, is used to study the transport properties of carbon chains covalently connecting metallic carbon nanotube leads at finite bias. The I- V characteristics of short carbon chains are predicted to exhibit even-odd behavior, and NDR is found for both even and odd chain junctions in our calculations.

Amine-gold linked single-molecule circuits: experiment and theory.

A combination of theory and experiment is used to quantitatively understand the conductance of single-molecule benzenediamine-gold junctions. A newly developed analysis is applied to a measured junction conductance distribution, based on 59 000 individual conductance traces, which has a clear peak at 0.0064 G0 and a width of +/-47%. This analysis establishes that the distribution width originates predominantly from variations in conductance across different junctions rather than variations in conductance during junction elongation. Conductance calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) for 15 distinct junction geometries show a similar spread. We show explicitly that differences in local structure have a limited influence on conductance because the amine-Au bonding motif is well-defined and flexible, explaining the narrow distributions seen in the experiments. The minimal impact of junction structure on conductance permits an unambiguous comparison of calculated and measured conductance values and a direct assessment of the widely used DFT theoretical framework. The average calculated conductance (0.046 G0) is found to be seven times larger than experiment. This discrepancy is explained quantitatively in terms of electron correlation effects to the molecular level alignments in the junction.

Negative differential resistance in transport through organic molecules on silicon.

Recent scanning tunneling microscopy studies of individual organic molecules on Si(001) reported negative differential resistance (NDR) above a critical applied field, observations explained by a resonant tunneling model proposed prior to the experiments. Here we use both density functional theory and a many-electron GW self-energy approach to quantitatively assess the viability of this mechanism in hybrid junctions with organic molecules on Si. For cyclopentene on p-type Si(001), the frontier energy levels are calculated to be independent of applied electric fields, ruling out the proposed mechanism for NDR. Guidelines for achieving NDR are developed and illustrated with two related molecules, aminocyclopentene and pyrroline.

Renormalization of molecular electronic levels at metal-molecule interfaces.

The electronic structure of benzene on graphite (0001) is computed using the GW approximation for the electron self-energy. The benzene quasiparticle energy gap is predicted to be 7.2 eV on graphite, substantially reduced from its calculated gas-phase value of 10.5 eV. This decrease is caused by a change in electronic correlation energy, an effect completely absent from the corresponding Kohn-Sham gap. For weakly coupled molecules, this correlation energy change can be described as a surface polarization effect. A classical image potential model illustrates the impact for other conjugated molecules on graphite.

Low-energy linear structures in dense oxygen: implications for the epsilon phase.

Using density functional theory implemented within the generalized gradient approximation, a new nonmagnetic insulating ground state of solid oxygen is proposed and found to be energetically favored at pressures corresponding to the epsilon phase. The newly predicted static ground state is composed of linear herringbone-type chains of O2 molecules and has Cmcm symmetry (with an alternative monoclinic cell). Importantly, this phase supports IR-active zone-center phonons, and their computed frequencies are found to be in broad agreement with recent infrared absorption experiments.

On the constitution of sodium at higher densities.

Using density functional theory the atomic and electronic structures of sodium are predicted to depart substantially from those expected of simple metals for r(s)<2.48 ( p>130 GPa). Newly predicted phases include those with low structural symmetry and semimetallic electronic properties (including zero-gap semiconducting limiting behavior), and even those that raise the possibility of superconductivity, all at currently achievable pressures. Important differences emerge between sodium and lithium at high densities, and these are attributable to corresponding differences in their respective cores.

Pressure amorphization through displacive disorder.

After classifying amorphous materials according to their topology, we review a recently proposed theory of pressure amorphization (PA) that arises from some degree of displacive disorder while retaining a crystalline topology. That theory is based on the notion that one or more branches of the phonon spectrum become soft and flat with increasing pressure and is illustrated by a simple model that possesses the range of features displayed by many of the materials which undergo PA with displacive disorder. We report the results of Langevin simulations of the simple model which show how the probability of amorphization increases with the number of unit cells in the system and support our theory. We comment on how to generalize the model for the study of real systems.