Understanding resonant charge transport through weakly coupled single-molecule junctions

James O. Thomas, Bart Limburg, Jakub K. Sowa, Kyle Willick, Jonathan Baugh, G. Andrew D. Briggs, Erik M. Gauger, Harry L. Anderson, Jan A. Mol

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

58 Citations (Scopus)
121 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Off-resonant charge transport through molecular junctions has been extensively studied since the advent of single-molecule electronics and is now well understood within the framework of the non-interacting Landauer approach. Conversely, gaining a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the resonant transport regime has proven more elusive. Here, we study resonant charge transport through graphene-based zinc-porphyrin junctions. We experimentally demonstrate an inadequacy of non-interacting Landauer theory as well as the conventional single-mode Franck–Condon model. Instead, we model overall charge transport as a sequence of non-adiabatic electron transfers, with rates depending on both outer and inner-sphere vibrational interactions. We show that the transport properties of our molecular junctions are determined by a combination of electron–electron and electron-vibrational coupling, and are sensitive to interactions with the wider local environment. Furthermore, we assess the importance of nuclear tunnelling and examine the suitability of semi-classical Marcus theory as a description of charge transport in molecular devices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4628
JournalNature Communications
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Oct 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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