Unconventional molecule-resolved current rectification in diamondoid–fullerene hybrids
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Materials and Energy Sciences; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Materials and Energy Sciences; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Inst. of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
- Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Inst. of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Materials and Energy Sciences
- Justus-Liebig Univ., Giessen (Germany). Inst. of Organic Chemistry
- Justus-Liebig Univ., Giessen (Germany). Inst. of Organic Chemistry; Kiev Polytechnic Inst. (Ukraine)
The unimolecular rectifier is a fundamental building block of molecular electronics. Rectification in single molecules can arise from electron transfer between molecular orbitals displaying asymmetric spatial charge distributions, akin to p–n junction diodes in semiconductors. Here we report a novel all-hydrocarbon molecular rectifier consisting of a diamantane–C60 conjugate. By linking both sp3 (diamondoid) and sp2 (fullerene) carbon allotropes, this hybrid molecule opposingly pairs negative and positive electron affinities. The single-molecule conductances of self-assembled domains on Au(111), probed by lowtemperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, reveal a large rectifying response of the molecular constructs. This specific electronic behaviour is postulated to originate from the electrostatic repulsion of diamantane–C60 molecules due to positively charged terminal hydrogen atoms on the diamondoid interacting with the top electrode (scanning tip) at various bias voltages. Density functional theory computations scrutinize the electronic and vibrational spectroscopic fingerprints of this unique molecular structure and corroborate the unconventional rectification mechanism.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1623958
- Journal Information:
- Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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