Kos, D;
Di Martino, G;
Boehmke, A;
de Nijs, B;
Berta, D;
Földes, T;
Sangtarash, S;
... Baumberg, JJ; + view all
(2020)
Optical probes of molecules as nano-mechanical switches.
Nature Communications
, 11
, Article 5905. 10.1038/s41467-020-19703-y.
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Abstract
Molecular electronics promises a new generation of ultralow-energy information technologies, based around functional molecular junctions. Here, we report optical probing that exploits a gold nanoparticle in a plasmonic nanocavity geometry used as one terminal of a well-defined molecular junction, deposited as a self-assembled molecular monolayer on flat gold. A conductive transparent cantilever electrically contacts individual nanoparticles while maintaining optical access to the molecular junction. Optical readout of molecular structure in the junction reveals ultralow-energy switching of ∼50 zJ, from a nano-electromechanical torsion spring at the single molecule level. Real-time Raman measurements show these electronic device characteristics are directly affected by this molecular torsion, which can be explained using a simple circuit model based on junction capacitances, confirmed by density functional theory calculations. This nanomechanical degree of freedom is normally invisible and ignored in electrical transport measurements but is vital to the design and exploitation of molecules as quantum-coherent electronic nanodevices.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Optical probes of molecules as nano-mechanical switches |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-020-19703-y |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19703-y |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Molecular electronics, Nanocavities, Nanoparticles, Nanophotonics and plasmonics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10116666 |
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