Influence of Peripheral Alkyl Groups on Junction Configurations in Single-Molecule Electronics

The addition of a lateral alkyl chain is a well-known strategy to reduce π-stacked ensembles of molecules in solution, with the intention to minimize the interactions between the molecules’ backbones. In this paper, we study whether this concept generalizes to single-molecule junctions by using a combination of mechanically controllable break...

Complexity of Electron Transport in Nanoscale Molecular Junctions

In this dissertation, we analyse the charge transport of nanoscale molecular junctions in mechanically controllable break junction (MCBJ) experiments. In particular, we focus on the characterization of molecular features going beyond the "single-peak" picture, that is, considering features in the measurements in addition to themost prominent one...

Exploring the impact of select anchor groups for norbornadiene/quadricyclane single-molecule switches

To achieve the ultimate limit of device miniaturization, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the structure–property relationship in functional molecular systems used in single-molecule electronics. This study reports the synthesis and characterization of a novel series of norbornadiene derivatives capped with thioether and...

A generalized neural network approach for separation of molecular breaking traces

Break-junction experiments are used to statistically study the electronic properties of individual molecules. The measurements consist of repeatedly breaking and merging a gold wire while measuring the conductance as a function of displacement. When a molecule is captured, a plateau is observed in the conductance traces otherwise exponentially...

Engineering Transport Orbitals in Single-Molecule Junctions

Controlling charge transport through molecules is challenging because it requires engineering of the energy of molecular orbitals involved in the transport process. While side groups are central to maintaining solubility in many molecular materials, their role in modulating charge transport through single-molecule junctions has received less...

Benchmark Study of Alkane Molecular Chains

Alkanes serve an important role as benchmark system in molecular electronics. However, a large variation in the conductance values is reported in the literature. To better understand these fluctuations, in this study we measure large molecular data sets (up to 100 000 breaking traces) of a series of alkanes with different lengths and...

Switching in Nanoscale Molecular Junctions due to Contact Reconfiguration

Switching effects are key elements in the design and characterization of nanoscale molecular electronics systems. They are used to achieve functionality through the transition between different conducting states. In this study, we analyze the presence of switching events in reference molecular systems, which are not designed to have switching...

Conformation-dependent charge transport through short peptides

We report on charge transport across single short peptides using the Mechanically Controlled Break Junction (MCBJ) method. We record thousands of electron transport events across single-molecule junctions and with an unsupervised machine learning algorithm, we identify several classes of traces with multifarious conductance values that may...

Optical and electronic properties of transparent conducting Ta:TiO₂thin and ultra-thin films: The effect of doping and thickness

The development of low-dimensional transparent conducting systems is nowadays gaining interest in view of novel optoelectronic applications. In this paper, we investigate the evolution of optical and electronic properties of Ta-doped TiO2 films when their thickness is decreased down to 5 nm and as a function of Ta doping (5-10 at%), and we...

Intermolecular Effects on Tunneling through Acenes in Large-Area and Single-Molecule Junctions

This paper describes the conductance of single-molecules and self-assembled monolayers comprising an oligophenyleneethynylene core, functionalized with acenes of increasing length that extend conjugation perpendicular to the path of tunneling electrons. In the Mechanically Controlled Break Junction (MCBJ) experiment, multiple conductance...