Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2015, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (1): 9.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20140941

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mechanism and Characterization of Electron Transport Through Metal/Molecule/Metal Junctions

YANG Yang, LIU Junyang, YAN Runwen, WU Deyin, TIAN Zhongqun*()   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
  • Received:2014-10-24 Revised:2014-12-23 Online:2015-01-10 Published:2014-12-23
  • Contact: TIAN Zhongqun E-mail:zqtian@xmu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(No. 2011YQ030124) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos. 21321062, 21373172).

Abstract:

Although molecular electronics emerged several decades ago, it is still concerning about fundamental issues so far. Metal/molecule/metal junction is a conceptually basic unit in molecular electronics. The mechanism of electron transport through metal/molecule/metal junction has attracted great interest. In general, the mechanisms for electron transport through metal/molecule/metal junctions can be divided into two categories: coherent transport and non-coherent transport according to the phase change of tunneling electrons. In this review, the electron transport mechanism is illustrated briefly by employing energy diagrams. More-over, several extensively measured approaches for studying metal/molecule/metal junctions, including I-V characteristic curve, I-t trace and conductance histogram, transition voltage spectroscopy, shot noise, inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy, and thermoelectricity are introduced through referring to some recent publications including our works.

Key words: Molecular electronics, Metal/molecule/metal junction, Electron transport, Self-assembly, Single molecule conductance

CLC Number: 

TrendMD: